Pardoned spy plans trip home

BERLIN, Germany -- U.S. businessman and convicted spy Edmond Pope was discharged on Saturday from a hospital where he had been since his release from a Russian prison, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Pope, the first American convicted of espionage in Russia in 40 years, will head home to the U.S. either on Sunday or Monday.

He was pardoned on Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin and immediately flew to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Pope was sentenced to 20 years in jail on December 6. He has denied the charges that he obtained secret torpedo technology, saying the information has been published.

Pope, 54, has suffered from a rare form of bone cancer, and doctors said on Friday it was unclear if it had resurfaced. They also ran tests for three lesions that were possible skin cancer.

"If he is discharged, he is in good condition," said Marie Shaw, a spokeswoman at the hospital in Landstuhl, near Frankfurt.

Pope, who was held for 253 days before his release, was to leave with his wife for the U.S. on a regular flight, Shaw said. His first destination will be Oregon, where his mother is caring for his ailing father, Shaw said.

"He's very concerned about his father," she said.

Until his departure, Pope is staying with his wife in a hotel located on Ramstein Air Base, which he is entitled to use because he is a retired U.S. Navy officer.

He was in a business meeting in Moscow for his company, CERF Technologies International, last April when a dozen security agents arrested him and the Russians he was meeting.

Pope said on Friday he had not been mistreated while in Moscow's high-security Lefortovo prison, but the lack of vitamins from his bland diet of porridge, potatoes, fish and soup took a toll on his health.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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