Spy’s appeal rejected by US court

Pollard, reports The Washington Times, was convicted in 1987 for selling military secrets to Israel while working as an intelligence analyst for the Navy. The Appeals Court ruled that Pollard waited too long to try to contest his 1987 sentence and failed to make a convincing case that he got shoddy legal help. Pollard argued in his appeal that his original lawyer had failed to file a notice of appeal in 1986 when the government, according to his lawyers, in effect sought a term of life imprisonment after promising it would not do so. But Judge David Sentelle rejected as ‘nonsensical’ the argument that Pollard did not realise the purported mistake by his lawyer at the time. ‘Pollard knew the facts. What he now claims not to have known is the legal significance of these facts.’ Full report in The Washington Times