Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, is to begin a five-day fast Monday to protest the prison treatment of his wife, Anne Henderson Pollard.
The information was reported by Bernard Henderson, Anne Pollard’s father, who is publicist for the Pollard case.
According to Henderson and members of the Pollard family, Anne Pollard was wrested abruptly from beneficial medical treatment at Danbury General Hospital on Saturday, Jan. 14, and taken by prison guards back to the federal prison facility in Rochester, Minn.
She had been a prisoner there until Sept. 1, when she was transferred to Danbury Prison Camp, a minimum security prison. She had been taken from the Danbury prison to the hospital for treatment for dehydration and malnutrition, her family and attorneys reported.
On Sunday, Henderson said Jonathan Pollard, who is a prisoner in solitary confinement at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill., would begin a fast to protest the “kidnapping” of his wife from the hospital; the “reckless endangerment of her life” by removing her intravenous tubes; and the “theft of religious articles” at the Rochester prison.
Henderson reported Friday that his daughter’s necklace, bearing the Hebrew word “chai” (life), had disappeared.
Jonathan Pollard went on a hunger strike in July to protest treatment of both himself and his wife. Henderson said his son-in-law “passed out” three days later.
Henderson pointed out that this fast would not be a hunger strike, to avoid the prison labeling Pollard “mentally incompetent” and thereby force-feeding him. He will drink water.
CHARGES OF KIDNAPPING RAISED
Last week, Donald Abrams, a former assistant U.S. attorney who is now acting as one of Anne Pollard’s lawyers, asked the U.S. attorney general to investigate possible violations of federal kidnapping, assault and civil rights laws regarding her transfer back to the Minnesota facility.
The family says she is not getting medical care at the Rochester hospital prison.
A spokesman for Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, John Russell, said Thursday he had “no knowledge of the claim by Donald Abrams.”
Russell denied any kidnapping, however. He said, “The transfer of prisoners does not constitute kidnapping. We transfer prisoners every day.”
Anne Pollard is currently serving two concurrent five-year sentences for being an accessory to the crimes of her husband.
U.S. legal and prison authorities said she was transferred to the Rochester prison because it is a hospital facility.
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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.
