Israel has been maintaining official contacts with U.S. authorities regarding the case of Anne Henderson Pollard, a government minister disclosed Monday.
Environmental Protection Minister Ronni Milo told the Knesset that these contacts were designed to help ensure that Pollard could complete her jail sentence in such a way as to be able to lead a full and productive life thereafter.
Pollard is scheduled to be released next spring from jail, where she is serving two concurrent five-year sentences for possession of classified documents in connection with the espionage activities of her husband, Jonathan pollard.
Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Illinois for having provided Israel with top-secret U.S. documents pertaining to what he considered Israel’s security.
His wife, who suffers from a rare digestive disorder, had asked to be released on early parole on account of her bad health, but prison authorities rejected her petition. She is filing an appeal to the National Parole Board.
Her request for a furlough to attend High Holy Day services was turned down, reconsidered and is now in limbo just a few days before Rosh Hashanah.
Milo’s remarks are the first indication that the Israeli government has intervened in the Pollard case.
Cabinet ministers have been quoted several times as saying that the government would not involve itself with the matter.
Milo spoke in response to a motion introduced by Knesset member Yitzhak Levy of the National Religious Party, who called on President Bush to personally intervene on Pollard’s behalf for humanitarian reasons.
Several Knesset members, among them women from the major parties, have called on Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to intervene, following reports from Pollard supporters in the United States that her health was deteriorating rapidly.
In New York, Pollard’s father. Bernard Henderson, said he was “aware of several contacts” with Israeli government figures, but he said no one from Israel had examined the records of the Pollard case or “determined its accuracy.”
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