NEW YORK— Jonathan Pollard was released from prison Friday after 30 years behind bars for spying for Israel, his case a longtime irritant in relations between the two allies. His lawyers immediately went to court to challenge parole conditions that would let the government track his movements and monitor his computer use.
The pre-dawn release from a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, gave Pollard his long-sought freedom, but the legal and diplomatic wrangling that has defined the case continued.
Hours after he was driven away from the prison, the 61-year-old Pollard checked in with probation officers at a federal courthouse in New York City, then emerged into a throng of journalists. He wore loose-fitting khakis, a blue yarmulke and a slight smile.
“I can’t comment on anything today,” the Navy intelligence analyst said, his wife, Esther, on his arm. One of his lawyers and a U.S. marshal, grasping Pollard firmly by the arm, escorted him through the crowd of jostling photographers to a car.
Within hours of his release, Pollard’s attorneys filed court papers in New York challenging his “onerous and oppressive” parole conditions.
Those include a requirement that he wear a GPS ankle bracelet and submit to inspections of his computer at his home or at his job, which his lawyers said will be in the finance department of a New York investment firm.
Pollard’s lawyers complained that wearing a GPS monitor would be harmful to his health because he has severe diabetes and chronic swelling in his legs and ankles. They said the computer monitoring is unnecessary because he no longer possesses any useful classified information.
