Mr. Pollard was arrested in 1985 on charges of spying for Israel and sentenced to life in prison
Jonathan Pollard leaves a New York court house following his release from prison early on Friday.
Photo:
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel welcomed the release of Mr. Pollard, 61, who was arrested in 1985 on charges of spying for Israel and sentenced to life in prison.
“As someone who raised Jonathan’s case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come,” he said, adding that Mr. Pollard had been reunited with his family.
As a civilian analyst with the U.S. Navy, he removed a large number of classified documents from government files and gave them to an Israeli handler over an 18-month period, according to U.S. officials. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Successive Israeli governments have argued that a life sentence for spying on a close ally was too harsh, and that Mr. Pollard should be released early.
But previous attempts were repudiated by the U.S., in part because senior intelligence officials objected.
The case became a continuing source of friction between the U.S. and Israel, and a national sensation in Israel.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons agreed to free Mr. Pollard in July, after a parole commission determined he should be released early from his sentence based on good behavior and that he was unlikely to commit new crimes if freed.
The release comes as relations between Israel and the U.S. are at odds over the Obama administration’s decision to pursue a nuclear deal with Iran and world powers.
U.S. officials have denied that the move to free Mr. Pollard was politically motivated.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
“Throughout the years, we have felt Jonathan’s pain, and felt responsible and obliged to bring about his release,” Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement Friday.
U.S. lawmakers representing Mr. Pollard lobbied their Justice Department to allow the spy to renounce his U.S. citizenship and move to Israel, where his wife resides. He was granted Israeli citizenship in 1995.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Eliot Engel, both New York Democrats, wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking that Mr. Pollard be allowed to move to Israel.
The Justice Department hasn’t responded to the request, and it appears more likely that he will have to serve a five-year term of probation in the U.S.
Under the current terms of Mr. Pollard’s parole, which could last five years or longer, he must stay in the U.S. and get prior approval for any travel outside the district where he will live.
Mr. Pollard was released in the early morning hours from a federal prison in North Carolina, officials said. Hours after he walked out of prison, his lawyers announced they had filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York seeking to end what they called the “unreasonable and unlawful’’ parole conditions imposed on Mr. Pollard now that he is free.
The lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, are contesting the Justice Department’s decision that he wear a GPS tracking bracelet to monitor his location at all times, and submit to unfettered monitoring and inspection of his computers, as well as those of any employer that hires him. The lawyers said they were told these conditions were put in place to make sure he doesn't disclose any classified information in the future.
But to release him, the Parole Commission had already determined that Mr. Pollard wasn't likely to commit further crimes upon release—and Messrs. Lauer and Semmelman argue the parole conditions make no sense based on that previous determination.
“The notion that, having fought for and finally obtained his release after serving 30 years in prison, Mr. Pollard will now disclose stale 30-year-old information to anyone is preposterous. Apart from the fact that the information is useless, disclosing it will result in Mr. Pollard’s swift return to prison to serve out his life sentence,’’ the lawyers said in a joint statement.
Israelis hold placards demanding Jonathan Pollard’s release at protest in Jerusalem in 2014
Photo:
Reuters
Corrections & Amplifications
As a civilian analyst with the U.S. Navy, Jonathan Pollard removed a large number of classified documents from government files and gave them to an Israeli handler over an 18-month period, according to U.S. officials.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that it was an 18-year period.
