Outgoing US President Donald Trump took advantage of his last day in office to exercise his authority and pardon the sentencing of 143 people convicted or indicted. One of them is Aviam Sela, who was the operative of the spy Jonathan Pollard.
Sela, who was studying in the United States in the mid-1980s, was the one that Pollard, then an intelligence officer in the US Navy, approached him in the mid-1980s to help him pass on information to Israel. After returning to Israel, Sela was previously the commander of the Tel Nof Air Force base, but the appointment was canceled under American pressure and he retired from the army after two years.
The amnesty statement said that Sela’s request to pardon him was supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Drummer and the outgoing US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. “The State of Israel has fully apologized and requested the pardon in order to close this chapter on Israeli – US relations,” it read.
Explanation of Aviam Sela’s pardon (Photo: screenshot)As you may recall, two and a half weeks ago, the spy Jonathan Pollard arrived in Israel, after spending 30 years in prison and another five years under restrictions at his home in New York. He arrived in Israel with his wife Esther and said upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport that “we are excited to be home finally after 35 years. We thank the people of Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel for bringing us home. There is no one who is more proud of this country or its leader than we are. We hope to become productive citizens as soon as possible and move on with our lives here. This is a great country. She has a bright future. It is the future of the Jewish people and we are not going anywhere. ”
Advocate Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, Pollard’s attorney, said in response to the pardon to Aviam Sela, that “while we are happy about the pardon of Aviam Sela who initially enlisted Pollard, we hope he will finally tell the truth and justice will be served. For 35 years Pollard has suffered from a mask of malicious lies and false accusations, which Sela as his operator could have easily refuted. If there is an oath or legal affidavit given on behalf of Sela to the Americans, it should be made public so that all the lies and plots against Pollard can finally be refuted. It is time for Sela to come out of the shadows and tell what exactly he knows about the patriotic Jew who suffered 30 years in the American prison. “