PM pressured to divulge info regarding gov't efforts in Pollard case
State Control Committee's inequity into past, present attempts to free Israeli spy goes full throttle as committee, State Comptroller Lindenstrauss pressure Olmert to volunteer more information
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss is considering taking legal measures in order to compel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to appear before the Knesset's State Control Committee on the Pollard case.
The Knesset's State Control Committee is currently devising a report probing the measure taken by past and present Israeli governments to free Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, since he was incarcerated in the United States in the mid-1980s.
In a recent letter, Olmert informed Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party), who heads the committee, that Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel and political advisor Shalom Turjeman will make all of the Prime Minister's Office information on the matter available to the committee.
Should the committee have any further queries in the matter, promised the prime minister, he would be more than willing to answer them – in writing.
If Lindenstrauss still finds the answers insufficient, he can call Olmert to a special committee session. According to a Wednesday report in Yedioth Ahronoth, Lindenstrauss warned that should Olmert refuse to appear before the committee, it is within his jurisdiction to issue a Habeas Corpus writ for the PM.
A Habeas Corpus writ can be used by both the criminal courts and the civil ones in order to compel a person to appear before the bench. The writ is considered an extraordinary legal measure.
The state comptroller enjoys proxy of a committee of parliamentary inquiry in the Pollard case, which allows him certain liberties; but according to the State Comptroller's Office, Lindenstrauss said he "would do his best to avoid such radical measures."
