A Bureau of Prisons official Thursday termed as premature reports that Anne Henderson Pollard is being transferred to a federal prison near her father’s home in Secaucus, N.J.
The official, responding to a Washington Post report, said a decision has “not been finalized,” but is expected early in the week of Sept. 5.
Pollard’s father, Bernard Henderson, said in a telephone interview Thursday that she “threw up all last night” and that she must see an ophthalmologist soon or else she will lose sight in one of her eyes.
John Chreno, executive assistant to the warden at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., where is Pollard is incarcerated, said Thursday he could not comment on the medical condition of a specific patient.
He said that no changes have yet occurred in her situation since a meeting at the Federal Bureau of Prisons here Tuesday between J. Michael Quinlan, the bureau director, and religious leaders seeking improved treatment for Pollard.
Among the assurances reached were that two of Anne’s doctors would be allowed to visit her and that the bureau was to strongly consider moving her to a prison in New Jersey.
“None of that has occurred,” Chreno said Thursday. “We understand some statements were made, and certainly when those are relayed and fully explained to us we are certainly going to comply with all of those agreements.”
Pollard is serving two concurrent five-year prison terms for assisting the espionage activities of her husband, Jonathan, on behalf of Israel.
She is believed to be suffering from a rare digestive disease and has complained repeatedly of receiving inadequate medical treatment in prison.
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