JERUSALEM (JTA) — The wife of convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard said her husband may not survive another year in prison.
Pollard, who entered his 27th year in prison on Monday, is suffering from several medical complications, according to his wife, Esther. Polllard married his wife while he was in prison.
"In the last year, as Jonathan’s [medical] condition became worse, he was too weak to even sit through a one-hour visit. I feel he’s withering away in front of my very eyes," Esther Pollard said in a statement.
She added that after "26 years, all his systems are feeble and we both know that the next emergency hospitalization or operation are just a matter a time, and that no one is promising us he’ll make it through."
Pollard has been hospitalized four times this year.
Esther Pollard’s statement came as the Justice for Jonathan Pollard campaign called on its supporters to call the White House and send the message "Free Jonathan Pollard Now."
The campaign has publicized the White House’s phone number and set up a special number in Israel that goes directly to the White House for the cost of a local call, according to Ynet.
Current and former U.S. lawmakers and government officials have called on President Obama in recent months to grant clemency to Pollard, who was convicted of espionage in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison. In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a formal request for Pollard’s clemency to Obama. Also that month, more than 500 religious and community leaders asked Obama in a letter to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served.
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