WASHINGTON — Jonathan Pollard, whose spying for Israel led to a serious rift in relations with the United States, was released from prison early Friday after serving precisely 30 years. But complaints continued from his supporters that he has been treated unfairly.

Even as Pollard, 61, was being whisked from a federal prison in North Carolina to his new home in New York City, where he plans to work as a financial analyst at an investment firm, his lawyers were filing a new court petition on his behalf.

Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard and his wife, Esther, leave the federal courthouse in New York on Friday after Pollard served 30 years for selling intelligence secrets to Israel. The Associated Press

Parole Commission restrictions requiring Pollard to wear a GPS monitoring ankle bracelet, limiting his travel and monitoring his computer use are “unduly restrictive, unnecessary and unlawful,” said his attorney Eliot Lauer.

Two Congress members from New York, Jerrold Nadler and Eliot L. Engel, have urged Attorney General Loretta Lynch to permit Pollard to renounce his U.S. citizenship and move immediately to Israel, which first disavowed Pollard when he was caught and later granted him citizenship.

The White House has said repeatedly it will not intervene on Pollard’s behalf.

For years, Pollard supporters campaigned for his early release, insisting the former civilian naval intelligence analyst had been imprisoned too long. Now that effort has been redirected to pressure the United States to facilitate his move to Israel.

Detractors say the magnitude of Pollard’s crimes justifies his punishment and that the conditions of his parole are routine. U.S. officials did not respond to questions about the parole conditions.

Pollard has indicated he wants to relocate to Israel, where he is certain to receive a hero’s welcome that could prove embarrassing to the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement welcoming Pollard’s release. But according to Israeli newspapers, Netanyahu ordered his Cabinet ministers not to discuss the subject because of its sensitivity with the Obama administration.

“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,” Netanyahu said. “May this Sabbath bring Jonathan Pollard much joy and peace that will continue in the years and decades ahead.”

Pollard’s dramatic arrest by FBI agents in 1985 – after his plea for asylum was rebuffed at the gates of the Israeli Embassy in Washington – triggered a crisis between the two allies. Initially, Israel denied any official connection to Pollard, but it was quickly revealed that the operatives for whom he was working reported to an intelligence adviser to then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

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