Israel says the United States has freed convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from federal prison after nearly 30 years.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard.
“After three long and difficult decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family. May this Sabbath bring him much joy and peace.”
The release of Pollard (61) marks the end an espionage case that divided public opinion and became an irritant and an occasional bargaining chip between the US and Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said: “The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan A Pollard. As someone who raised Jonathan’s case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come.”
Pollard's release from a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, came nearly three decades after his arrest for handing over classified US government information to Israel.
Pollard had been granted parole this summer from a life sentence imposed in 1987. His lawyers have said they have secured a job and housing for him in the New York area, without elaborating. The terms of his parole require him to remain in the United States for at least five years.
Punished excessively
His release caps one of the most high-profile spy sagas in modern American history. Supporters said he was punished excessively for actions taken on behalf of an American ally, while critics, including government officials, derided him as a traitor who sold out his country.
"I don't think there's any doubt that the crime merited a life sentence, given the amount of damage that Mr Pollard did to the United States government," said Joseph diGenova, who prosecuted the case in Washington. "I would have been perfectly pleased if he had spent the rest of his life in jail."
Seymour Reich, a former president of global Jewish organisation B'nai Brith International, who visited Pollard twice in prison, said that while he believed Pollard broke the law and deserved to be punished, his sentence was overly harsh. Like other supporters, he believes Pollard was "double-crossed" into thinking he would be afforded leniency in exchange for a guilty plea.
“I hope that he settles down and lives the remaining years as best as he can,” Mr Reich said.
Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, was arrested on November 21st, 1985 after trying unsuccessfully to gain asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington. He had earlier drawn the suspicion of a supervisor for handling large amounts of classified materials unrelated to his official duties.
US officials have said Pollard, over a series of months and for a salary, provided intelligence summaries and huge quantities of classified documents on the capabilities and programmes of the US and of Israel’s enemies. He pleaded guilty in 1986 to conspiracy to commit espionage and was given a life sentence a year later.
Expressed regret
Though he has said his guilty plea was coerced, he has also expressed regret, saying in a 1998 prison interview that he did not consider himself a hero and was not in it for the money.
“There is nothing good that came as a result of my actions,” he said at the time. “I tried to serve two countries at the same time. That does not work.”
Under sentencing rules in place at the time of his crime, he became presumptively eligible for parole in November – 30 years after his arrest. The justice department agreed not to oppose parole at a July hearing.
The parole decision was applauded in Israel, which after initially claiming that he was part of a rogue operation, acknowledged him in the 1990s as an agent and granted him citizenship. Israelis have long campaigned for his freedom, and Mr Netanyahu said last summer that he had consistently raised the issue of his release with American officials.
Pollard’s lawyers have sought permission for him to travel immediately to Israel, and two Democratic members of Congress – Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, both of New York – have called on the justice department to grant the request so that Pollard can live with his family and “resume his life there”.
PA