Photo: EPA
Photo: EPA
Report: Pollard to remain in US after release
Speculation that Obama would intervene to allow convicted Israeli spy to leave for Israel appears unfounded; 'Obama does not intervene in the judicial process.'
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama will not use his authority to allow Jonathan Pollard to move Israel after he is released for parole next week, according to a Washington Post
report on Monday.
Pollard, a convicted Israeli spy, is set to be freed after serving 30 years in American prison under the stipulation that he remain in the US for five years under supervision.
Jonathan Pollard. (Photo: AP)
Obama could theoretically override this stipulation, but according to the report, will avoid doing so even after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House on Monday during which it was assumed the Israeli leader would raise the Pollard Issue.
While it remains unclear whether or not the two discussed Pollard, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said last week that, "President Obama has not intervened in the judicial process here in the United States and that's been his consistent approach.
Netanyahu and Obama in Washington Monday. It's unknown whether or they discussed Pollard. (Photo: EPA)
"With respect to the case of Jonathan Pollard, he's made clear that he wants there to be fair treatment under the law, as there should be with any individual," he concluded.
However, the Justice Department could have moved to prevent Pollard's parole and there was speculation in July that the government's neutrality on the issue was meant as a gesture of goodwill after signing a nuclear agreement with Iran in July against Israel's wishes.
