Jonathan Pollard to Appeal Federal Court's Ruling on Parole Requirements
JTA Aug 24, 2016 9:34 AM
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.738334
Pollard's plans to argue that the parole requirements are arbitrary and
Pollard poses no security risk, since he has not had access to classified
government information for more than three decades.
Jonathan Pollard’s attorney announced plans to appeal a federal court’s
ruling not to lift the restrictive parole conditions on the convicted spy
for Israel.
On Tuesday, Eliot Lauer said he would file a notice of appeal over the Aug.
12 decision in Manhattan District Court.
In his appeal, Lauer plans to argue that the parole requirements are
arbitrary and Pollard poses no security risk, since he has not had access to
classified government information for more than three decades.
The parole terms issued upon Pollard’s release from a federal prison last
November after serving 30 years of a life sentence require him to stay in
his New York home from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.; to submit any computer he uses for
inspection, and to wear a GPS-monitoring device at all times. The device
means that Pollard, who is Orthodox, is forced to violate Shabbat
observance, his lawyer said. He also must remain in the United States for
five years, despite his desire to move to Israel.
In her ruling, Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that the U.S. Parole Commission
had a rational basis for imposing the stringent parole conditions, noting
Pollard’s expressed desire to leave the United States for Israel, where his
wife lives and where he was granted citizenship while in prison.
She also noted that the commission also had reviewed a letter from the U.S.
director of national intelligence, James Clapper, stating that documents
Pollard had compromised remain classified at the levels of “top secret” and
“secret.”
Pollard, 62, pleaded guilty in 1986 to conspiracy to commit espionage in
connection with providing Israeli contacts with hundreds of classified
documents he had obtained as a civilian intelligence specialist for the U.S.
Navy.
|
