Pollard In Court, Supporters Demand Justice

Arutz 7 News - September 2, 2003

"Justice for Jonathan Pollard!" Supporters of Jonathan Pollard in both the United States and Israel will be gathering today to demand exactly that, on the occasion of a court session and Pollard's first public appearance in over 16 years. He has been summoned to appear in courtroom 8 of the United States District Court in Washington, D.C. at 2 PM this afternoon (9 PM Israel time).

It is not clear why the presiding justice, Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan, has ordered Pollard to appear in court for a motion hearing. Pollard is in ill health, and the long trip from his North Carolina prison cell will not be easy for him.

Eli Joseph of Maaleh Adumim, who is organizing this afternoon's demonstration outside the American Consulate in Jerusalem, says that the protestors will simply "demand justice." Pollard has been "denied his basic right to appeal for 18 years, " Joseph told Arutz-7 today, "because of the incompetence - to put it extremely mildly - of his lawyer at the time... We also demand the right to see the secret documents upon which they base the conviction - but which Jonathan's lawyers have not even been allowed to see!"

Pollard's wife Esther has repeatedly emphasized that today's court session is nothing more than a procedure during which the attorneys for both sides once again present oral arguments. She is not optimistic: "It's essentially just more talk about whether or not to allow the attorneys to continue Jonathan's cases, which have already been sitting on the judge's desk for the last three years," she says. "It is a device that allows the Court to avoid making a decision on those two cases."