Israel’s High Court of Justice has ordered the government to explain why it turned down convicted spy Jonathan Pollard’s request for Israeli citizenship.
Pollard, a former U.S. naval intelligence analyst, was arrested in the United States in 1985 and sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment for spying for Israel.
Pollard appealed to the High Court of Justice after his request for Israeli citizenship was turned down by Interior Minister Ehud Barak a month ago.
His appeal was based on statute granting Jews citizenship if they have performed a service for Israel.
The statute was used in the past to grant citizenship to Soviet dissidents who were not permitted to leave the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.
Pollard’s lawyer said in September that Barak had used a legal loophole to get around granting the citizenship request.
The court on Wednesday gave the government 30 days to explain its earlier refusal.
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