Esther Pollard, the wife of convicted American Jewish spy Jonathan Pollard, met this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss her husband’s plight.
Netanyahu promised her during the meeting that the Israeli government would continue to seek her husband’s release, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Pollard said she was “heartened” by the meeting, but added that she is continuing her hunger strike, which was in its 18th day Wednesday, to demand her husband’s release.
In late July, President Clinton refused to grant executive clemency to Jonathan Pollard. Clinton’s decision formalized a White House policy announced in March.
The former U.S. Navy civilian intelligence analyst was arrested in 1985 outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He pleaded guilty in 1986 to stealing secrets for the Israeli government and, in 1987, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Clinton has now formally denied Pollard clemency two times, the first coming in March 1994.
President Bush had refused to commute Pollard’s sentence before leaving office.
Netanyahu, as well as predecessors Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, had raised Pollard’s fate during meetings with Clinton.
Earlier this year, the Peres government granted Pollard Israeli citizenship, a move that the convicted spy had hoped would bolster his chances for release.
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