Premier Yitzhak Shamir hinted broadly Tuesday that three former diplomatic officials need not fear incrimination in the United States if they testify before a Cabinet-appointed panel investigating the Jonathan Pollard spy case.
Although Israel has undertaken to cooperate with the U.S. in the Pollard affair, it made no promise to pass all relevant material on to Washington, Shamir told reporters. He thus offered assurances to lawyer David Libai, who advised his clients not to testify, that whatever they say will not place them in danger of prosecution in the U.S.
Libai is engaged in negotiations with Attorney General Yosef Harish for a written commitment that testimony given at the Cabinet-sponsored probe will not be passed on to foreign sources. “From what I know, as far as the government’s undertaking (to the U.S.) is concerned, it is certainly possible for the (committee) to continue its work without detriment to Libai’s clients,” Shamir said.
The two-man committee ran into a roadblock at the outset of it hearings last week when Yosef Yagur, Ilan Ravid and Irit Erb, former officials at the Israel Embassy in Washington and the Consulate General in New York, refused to appear on grounds of self-incrimination. The three, allegedly associated with Pollard, left the U.S. immediately after his arrest in 1985.
The committee, consisting of Tel Aviv lawyer Yehoshua Rotenstreich and former Chief of Staff Zvi Tsur, remains stalled. The government is anxious for it to complete its task in order to forestall demands for a full-scale judicial inquiry with broad powers the committee lacks.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
