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05/08
Sharon Roffe-Ofir |
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 8, 2005 |
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After spending the past two decades in an American prison, Jonathan Pollard is demanding that the State of Israel acknowledge him as a Prisoner of Zion, and to thereby investigate the torture he has undergone in American prisons.
In his appeal to the Supreme Court he describes his 20-year-long journey through the American punitive system in terms that resemble the conditions in Siberia of the past century, rather than U.S. in the year 2005.
"The petitioner has been going through difficult tortures," Pollard's attorney Niztana Dreshen-Latner begins the long list of physical and mental tortures, which make up the prosecution's case.
In his graphic descriptions, Pollard includes the time when he was held naked in freezing solitary confinement. He said he was forced to sustain these conditions for long periods of time during the winter.
In addition to his clothes, his glasses were taken away and he was not given any normal sleeping accommodations, such as bed or linen. In his appeal, Pollard said he "had to sleep like an animal on a concrete platform."
In another incident, Pollard described he was taken into a special cell, where he was seated on an iron chair, to which his arms and legs were tied with iron chains. While seated there, his guards ruthlessly sprayed ice water at him.
"He could not sustain the pressure of the ice water tossed at his face with enormous force.
"The water was so cold, so that they burnt his whole body. This abuse had taken away his will to survive," the appeal reads.
In addition, Pollard claims he spent a year committed to a special ward for the mentally ill against his will. This is also where they would electrically shock him from time to time.
The guards "would guarantee Jonathan's obedience by electrical shocks; when he was beaten, he would collapse on the floor and lose control over his blabber; he could not move or talk, his body would quiver," the appeal read.
The appeal concludes Pollard is unhealthy since he is still locked?up in an American jail. "He is unhealthy as a result of the many torturous years in prison. Moreover, he is not entitled to receive the medical treatment he so urgently needs; even today, he is still one of the most kept prisoners in the U.S.," the appeal reads.
In the past, the committee that rejected Pollard's previous appeals argued they doubt whether espionage action can actually count as Zionist action.
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