Pollard Blasts Israeli President on Prisoner Transfer

Justice4JP Release - October 23, 2000

To: President Moshe Katsav
Date: October 23, 2000

From:
Jonathan Pollard 09185-016
FCI Butner, POB 1000
Butner, North Carolina
USA  27509-1000

Dear President Katsav,

Re: Disinformation on prisoner transfer

As you and your legal advisors surely know, as an Israeli agent I am not eligible for prisoner transfer according to guidelines of the Exchange of Prisoners treaty between the US and Israel. Therefore for your office to advocate such a possibility in the media is pure disinformation.

My new legal case proves that my sentence was obtained unjustly, through the gross violation of my constitutional rights - something that Israel has never protested. For your office to endorse a continuation of an unjust sentence via prisoner transfer is obscene.

As you and the Government of Israel are well aware, the life sentence I received was based on a false charge of treason - a crime that I was never accused, indicted or convicted of. Both my sentence and my prolonged incarceration are politically-driven messages to Israel and to the American Jewish community. For the President of the State of Israel to suggest that an Israeli agent should be held in an Israeli jail to satisfy the political motives of a foreign power is immoral and nationally self-abasing.

Moreover, if the Americans are not willing to release me for the right reasons - equal justice and equal treatment of Israel as an ally - it is foolish to suggest that they would release me to Israel for the wrong reasons, namely a prisoner transfer.

President Katsav, aside from paying lip-service to my cause, it is clear that you have chosen to excuse yourself from any constructive initiative to secure the release of an Israeli agent. It would therefore be appreciated if you and your office would refrain from exacerbating my situation by making any further false or inaccurate statements to the media.

Yours truly,
(signed)
Jonathan Pollard

cc Larry Dub