Israeli spy Pollard released after 30 years in United States prison

After spending 30 years in prison for spying on the US for Israel, Jonathan Pollard was released Friday.

Pollard was given a life sentence in 1987 for providing large amounts of classified USA government information to Israel.

Pollard’s lawyers plan to challenge the terms of his parole and removed the mandatory five years Pollard now has to stay in the USA for.

Netanyahu, who said he pushed for Pollard’s release before multiple US presidents, added that he waited a long time for his release.

The sentence has been a major bone of contention between Israel and the United States, with successive U.S. presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan through Barack Obama refusing Pollard’s early release.

Two NY congressmen, Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, have also written U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, saying Pollard should be allowed to renounce his American citizenship and emigrate to Israel.

Israel initially claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, before granting him citizenship in the 1990s and acknowledging he was an agent.

Israeli officials are concerned that too warm a celebration over his release might hurt efforts to persuade the U.S. government to let him leave for Israel sooner rather than later.

“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”, the lawyers said.

Though Pollard was branded a traitor in the United States, many in Israel considered him a Jewish American hero, who had acted out of conviction to protect the Jewish state.

Pollard passed secret information to Israel for a year, in return for payments, after being arrested.

“After all this time, we want him to get out without any difficulties of any comments in the press”, said Kenneth Lasson, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who supported Pollard’s bid to have his sentence shortened. They said the computer monitoring is unnecessary because he no longer possesses any useful classified information.

Pollard and his wife, Elaine, were seen checking in at a Manhattan probation office.

Pollard’s lawyers said he has a job and accommodation waiting for him in the NY area.

The imprisonment of Pollard has been a sore point for American-Israeli relations for decades. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the people of his nation “welcome the release” and that he, personally, “had long hoped this day would come”.

However, under the terms of his parole, Pollard would not be able to move to Israel for at least five years during his parole.

Pollard was held at a federal facility in Butner, North Carolina.

But previous attempts were repudiated by the USA, in part because senior intelligence officials objected. US officials confirmed the request was made.

Pollard, who was a US Navy analyst when he stole the thousands of documents, will not be allowed to give interviews following his release.

As a Jewish-American teen moving to South Bend, Indiana, in the 1960s, Jonathan Pollard immediately struggled to fit in.

“I wish him on his first Sabbath that he will spend with his family a lot of joy, a lot of happiness, a lot of peace”.

Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard and his wife, Esther leave the federal courthouse in NY on Friday.