For the first time since her imprisonment March 4, 1987, Anne Henderson Pollard will testify Thursday in her own behalf, to tell how she has been treated in prison for her medical ailments.
Late last month, Magistrate Janice Symchych of U.S. District Court in St. Paul issued an order to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to show cause why Anne Henderson Pollard should not be released on a writ of habeas corpus.
A writ of habeas corpus is a procedure for obtaining a judicial determination of the legality of a prisoner’s custody. Pollard will appear in the courtroom of the Federal Medical Center, a prison facility in Rochester, Minn.
In a petition to the court, attorneys for Pollard charged the warden of the Rochester prison, Joseph Bogan, with illegal imprisonment and inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on Pollard by refusing to treat her medical needs.
Anne is serving two concurrent prison terms for being an accessory to her husband Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel.
She had been returned to the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., from Danbury General Hospital on Jan. 14, in what her family terms “kidnapping.”
Anne was being treated in Danbury for dehydration and malnourishment, according to a diagnosis by a doctor at the Danbury Prison Camp.
Prior to that, she had been at the Rochester facility, which is a prison hospital. Pollard’s family says she was unexpectedly and forcibly taken from her hospital bed and returned to the Minnesota prison.
She has told attorneys and family she is not being treated for her illnesses, which reportedly include biliary dyskinesia and gastroparesis, making it difficult and painful for her to digest food. She also has some eye ailments which she charges have not been treated.
Spokesmen for the prisons told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Pollard’s transfer back to Rochester was effected in order to adequately treat her medically.
Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for espionage in a maximum security prison in Marion, III., recently ended a five-day fast he had embarked on to protest his wife’s treatment.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
