News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) State Comptroller and Ombudsman Micha Lindenstrauss is considering ordering Prime Minster Ehud Olmert to testify before him over the government's attitude towards former Pentagon agent Jonathan Pollard. An American court sentenced him to life in prison for passing on to Israel classified information. The usual punishment of the offense is approximately four years, and Pollard has charged that the government is not interested in working seriously for a pardon for him.

Prime Minister Olmert has sent Lindenstrauss, a former justice, documents on government action but has refused to testify. "If I'm wrong I'll be the first to admit it, and I wish I am, but someone here is behaving in a shady manner," he said last month.