Travel  |  Business World  |  Women's World  |  Entertainment

Change Your Life!

Putin will pardon American businessman Edmond Pope

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

December 10, 2000 

MAGNITOGORSK, Russia-- (AP) - President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that he will pardon American businessman Edmond Pope who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of espionage.

Putin, on a tour of industrial facilities in the Urals region, said he wanted to maintain good relations with the United States, which denounced Pope's conviction as unwarranted and called for his swift release.

Putin did not give a specific date for Pope's release, but said it would be come some time after Dec. 14.

Putin said he discussed the case by telephone with U.S. President Bill Clinton, who had expressed concern about Pope's health. Putin said he assured Clinton that Pope would be pardoned and released. He did not say when he spoke to Clinton.

A Moscow court sentenced Pope, a former U.S. navy intelligence officer, to a maximum prison term of 20 years this week on charges of obtaining information about a top-secret Russian navy torpedo.

Pope insisted he was not a spy, and that information about the torpedo was freely available. The American businessman runs a company that specializes in information about foreign maritime technology.

The Russian presidential pardons commission on Friday recommended that Pope be released and sent home, citing his recent bout of bone cancer and the poor health of his father.

Putin said Saturday, he could only agree with the opinion of such a respected body.

Defense attorneys and independent observers criticized the Moscow court which convicted Pope, saying it had been biased in favor of the Russian security services. The defense said the court had done everything to impede Pope's case while actively assisting the prosecution.

It was the first time in some 40 years that an American had been convicted in Russia on espionage charges. The case further complicated the sometimes strained relations between Washington and Moscow.

Putin said he could not pardon Pope before Dec. 14 because of a regulation that clemency could not be granted until a week after sentence is passed.

Pope, 54, from State College, Pennsylvania, has been held for the past eight months in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. His family say his health has suffered during the incarceration