US Ambassador: I don't know if Pollard will die in prison

Dan Shapiro, US Ambassador to Israel: "Jonathan Pollard still has the right to ask for clemency."

Dan Brener - Israel Hayom - May 2, 2013


"I don't know if Jonathan Pollard will be forced to spend the rest of his life in prison until he dies but he still has the right to ask for clemency," said the US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, when speaking with students at the Emek Yisrael College yesterday.

On the subject of Iran, he said "Israel has the right to independent military action."

In 2010 Pollard did indeed file a formal petition for clemency from President Obama, and over in the ensuing years, letters by Secretaries of State Shultz and Kissinger and by Former CIA Head R. James Woolsey, and letters by a number of other Senior American officials have been added to Pollard's clemency request. They ask President Obama to grant clemency in light of the fact that Pollard's sentence is grossly disproportionate when compared to the sentences of all others who were charged with spying for friendly nations.

Pollard's clemency petition is still sitting on Obama's desk for the last 3 years, and to date the president has yet to respond.

View the original Hebrew article.