Pollard to Supreme Court: "Don't Release the Terrorist Prisoners Until I am Released"

MA'ARIV, Front Page , November 16, 1998 - Ben Caspit

JERUSALEM, Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard intends to file a petition in Israel Supreme Court against the Prime Minister, requesting a court injunction opposing the release of Palestinian terrorist prisoners under the framework of the Wye Accord, until he is first released from prison.

Barring any last minute unforeseen eventualities, Pollard's attorneys Larry Dub and Baruch Ben-Yosef will be filing the petition this morning.

The petition is accompanied by an affidavit signed by Esther Pollard, in which she states that in July of 1998 she met with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary Dani Naveh. At that meeting she received clear commitments from both government officials that the release of her husband Jonathan would be a condition for carrying out the second redeployment , and that Israel would not release a single Palestinian prisoner without first securing Jonathan Pollard's release.

In the affidavit Esther Pollard describes a separate meeting with Dani Naveh in the presence of attorney Ben-Yosef, during which she requested the Government's promises regarding her husband's release in writing. Naveh refused the request, saying that the Government's word is binding.

In his petition to the Supreme Court, Pollard indicates that he is aware that this week the Government of Israel intends to release 250 of the 750 Palestinian prisoners slated for release under the terms of the Wye Accord, and he requests that Court issue a temporary injunction to prevent the release.