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US frees Jonathan Pollard from parole

With his newfound freedom, Pollard will now be able to achieve his lifelong dream of moving to Israel, where he has citizenship.

By JNS

Jonathan Pollard, a former intelligence analyst who served three decades in prison for spying for and giving classified information to Israel, has been freed.

The U.S. Parole Commission declined to renew Pollard’s parole conditions and issued a certificate terminating parole and lifting all parole restrictions, according to a statement on Friday by Pollard’s lawyers, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman.

Pollard’s conditions under the Parole Commission, since being released in 2015, included remaining in New York City for at least five years unless granted permission to travel outside, having his computer use monitored by the U.S. government and wearing a wrist monitor.

U.S. President Donald Trump considered allowing Pollard to attend the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, but that did not materialize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly raised Pollard’s case in his meetings with Trump.

In 2017, a U.S. federal circuit court denied a request to ease Pollard’s parole restrictions.

With his newfound freedom, Pollard will now be able to achieve his lifelong dream of moving to Israel, where he has citizenship.

His wife, Esther, has been fighting an aggressive form of cancer.