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American convicted of spying in Russia seeks pardon
MOSCOW, Russia -- A Russian presidential commission has recommended convicted U.S. spy Edmond Pope be given a pardon. The decision on whether Pope should walk free rests with President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to back the move.
The commission's announcement came on Friday after its head said he believed there were humanitarian reasons to pardon the retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer. Pope was convicted on Wednesday of illegally obtaining classified blueprints of a high-speed torpedo. He was sentenced to 20 years in a labor camp. Key evidence withdrawnAuthorities arrested Pope and a Russian citizen, Anatoly Babkin, in early April and accused them of espionage. The Russian Federal Security Service, known by the acronym FSB, said Babkin, a professor at Moscow's elite Technical University, handed over state secrets on a new torpedo to Pope. But in early November, Babkin retracted his previous statement about providing classified information, said Pope's lawyer Pavel Astakhov. Babkin wrote to the Russian court saying he made the statement under pressure from investigators, Astakhov said.. But the FSB domestic intelligence service said its case against Pope was not based only on Babkin's testimony, and included documentary and video material. The agency said it had accumulated numerous top-secret blueprints as well as tape recordings of conversations between the arrested U.S. citizen and Russian defense experts from different parts of Russia. An FSB statement said a search of the American's belongings had revealed that "the foreigner intentionally developed contacts with Russian scientists in Moscow, Novosibirsk and other cities of our country with the goal of gathering state secrets of Russia." Cancer concernsPutin, who alone can save Pope from serving the sentence, has already indicated that he might take his health into account if asked to decide his fate. Pope, 54, suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, though Russian doctors have said the illness is in remission. His father suffers from the same affliction. Following his conviction, he sent a letter to Putin pleading for clemency in which he requested that he be released from prison and allowed to return to his family in Pennsylvania to receive health care. "I request this release to be as soon as possible as my father is terminally ill and I wish to visit him one last time," Pope said in his letter. Interfax news agency, quoting a Kremlin official responsible for pardons, Robert Tsivilev, said the letter began simply: "I ask you to pardon me and release me from prison." The United States had also appealed to the Russian president to pardon Pope immediately to allow him to seek qualified medical attention. "We believe that Pope's conviction was unjustifiable and wrong," White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said in Washington. "We have said to the Russians at every level, from the president on down, consistently, that we believe he should be released on humanitarian grounds, if nothing else."
Jennifer Bennett, a spokeswoman for U.S. Congressman John Peterson, who has been following the case, said Pope's wife, Cheri, had been optimistic about the outcome. "She is very optimistic about the meeting of the presidential pardon commission. This is very welcome news for her," Bennett said. Anatoly Pristavkin, head of the pardons commission, told Russian television on Thursday the humanitarian aspect of the case was likely to tip the scales in Pope's favor. "I hope we will take a humane decision to allow him to go home where his father is ill," he said. Pope's imprisonment and trial have cast a shadow over Russia's relations with Washington. U.S. President Bill Clinton personally raised the issue of Pope's health with Putin, but the Russian president refused to intervene, saying the matter was for the courts. Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: U.S. man convicted on Russian spy charges RELATED SITES: The Government of the Russian Federation | |||||||||||||||||
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