Alan Dershowitz: Cautious, optimistic that Pollard will go free
Dershowitz said that if what he called "the unjustified parole restrictions" are renewed, he has a chance to receive commutation from US President Donald Trump.
By GIL HOFFMANJonathan and Esther Pollard outside the Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York City(photo credit: REUTERS)
Former Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard was still completely unaware on Thursday of whether he will be allowed to move to Israel or if his harsh parole restrictions will be renewed.It is up to the US Justice Department to renew the conditions by the time the five years are up, or they are presumed to expire immediately. It was not clear whether the deadline for renewing the parole restrictions was Thursday night, Friday or Saturday.World-renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz expressed cautious optimism on Wednesday that Pollard’s restrictions will be relaxed on Friday when he completes his fifth year of parole from his life sentence for spying for Israel.The parole conditions since Pollard’s release from prison five years ago require him to wear an electronic GPS ankle bracelet at all times, to be subjected to unfettered monitoring and inspection of his computers and prevent him from leaving his New York home before 7 am or returning after 7 pm.“I am cautiously optimistic, but I have been cautiously optimistic before,” Dershowitz told The Jerusalem Post in a phone interview. “With Jonathan Pollard, there are people in government who raise absurd objections.”If “the unjustified parole restrictions” are renewed, Pollard has a chance to receive commutation from US President Donald Trump, he said.While Dershowitz has not been in touch with Pollard for many years, he represented him in the past, has lobbied presidents for his release and continues to try to help him.Dershowitz said he thought he had managed to persuade former president Bill Clinton in a conversation at Martha’s Vineyard to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served, but then-CIA director, George Tenet, vetoed the commutation.Pollard has reason for concern that the conditions will be renewed because he still has 10 years left of his life sentence. It was given before life sentences in the US were reduced from 45 years to the 30 that he served. Parole conditions lasting five years are considered standard.“Under normal circumstances – that is, with any other prisoner, including spies for enemy nations, drug dealers, etc. – the five-year marker would have significance,” a source close to the Pollards said. “Provided that there were five years of good conduct, it would be honored immediately. But not for Israel’s agent. Nothing in this case has ever been handled according to normative legal practice.”Sources familiar with the matter said they were not aware of another case in which a parolee was not informed weeks or months in advance of the date and time of the end of his or her parole. Prisoners are told this well in advance so that they can make plans for the future, the sources said.“In Jonathan’s case, where he is taking care of a sick wife whose medical care he must assure, it is more than unfair and inconsiderate that the authorities have kept him in the dark right to the last minute,” a source close to the Pollards said.
