U.S.

New Proof May Help Accused U.S. Spy

November 3, 2000 / 7:45 AM EST / AP

The Moscow court hearing the espionage case against U.S. businessman Edmond Pope has accepted new evidence that could absolve the defendant, Pope's lawyer said Monday.

Pavel Astakhov said that the court had accepted a document issued by the Bauman Technical Institute in Moscow, which authorized a report that contained the plans for a high-speed torpedo to be sent abroad.

Pope is accused of obtaining the report, which was written by Bauman professor Anatoly Babkin, and sending it to the United States. Supporters say the blueprints had already been sold abroad, were published in open sources, and weren't secret.

The authorization for the report to be sent abroad proves that neither Pope nor Babkin had planned to receive or transfer secret data, Astakhov said.

"This must exonerate my client," he said. The document was submitted to the court on Friday.

The attorney said that under a contract with the Bauman Institute, signed by Pope, none of the documents he was to receive were to contain secret data.

The court adjourned on Friday after Astakhov presented the court with publications that he said were identical to the reports Pope is accused of obtaining. The hearing resumes on Tuesday.

Since the trial began on Oct. 18, one of Pope's key accusers has recanted a statement that implicated him in espionage.

But a government commission concluded that the plans, parts of which Pope received before his arrest, were in fact classified — even though another group of experts ruled that the materials weren't secret when Pope requested them.

The U.S. government has urged Russia to release Pope, saying authorities have failed to show he did anything illegal, and because he is in poor health. Pope has suffered from bone cancer, which was in remission when he came to Moscow. His family fears that the cancer may have returned.

Pope, 54, of State College, Pa., is a retired U.S. Navy officer and founder of CERF Technologies International, a company specializing in studying foreign maritime equipment.