Pope's Lawyer Requests Acquittal
The attorney for a U.S. businessman accused of espionage asked a Moscow judge to acquit his client, saying Friday that prosecutors had failed to make a case.
Defense lawyer Pavel Astakhov warned that because of his weak health, Edmond Pope would die in prison if he is sentenced to the maximum 20 years prosecutors have demanded.
The former naval intelligence officer is accused of obtaining classified torpedo designs. He insists he is innocent, and his supporters say the plans for the high-speed, underwater Shkval torpedo were not classified.
Defense lawyer Andrei Andrusenko told the court Friday that Russia cannot call the designs a state secret. Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan also have the technology, and Kazakstan has sold Shkval missiles to China, he said.
Astakhov then read his closing argument, which he had written in verse. He repeated fragments to reporters afterward:
"I call on you to open your eyes, tune in your ears and speak the truth from your lips. There is one truth. He is not guilty."
"To acquit him is a societal task, not just for you and me, but for all Russian society," he told the judge.
Astakhov did not explain why he read the statement in verse, an extremely unusual move in Russia's somber, conservative court system. He praised the judge for recognizing its iambic pentameter, but said the court interpreter threw up his hands at the task of translating it.
Prosecutor Yuri Volgin would not comment on Friday's proceedings. The seven-week-old, closed-door trial adjourned until Wednesday, when Pope is expected to read his closing statement. A verdict is expected shortly afterward, Astakhov said.
The U.S. government has urged Pope's release, citing his health and saying Russian authorities have not proved wrongdoing. Pope, 54, suffers from bone cancer that was in remission when he came to Moscow in April. His family fears the cancer may have returned.
"A sentence of 20 years will mean a death sentence for Pope," Astakhov said. "Even representatives from the prosecution said they feel sorry for him because he is obviously suffering."
Prosecutors want the judge to fine Pope $250 million in addition to the prison term for harming Russia's struggling military, though Pope's key accuser has recanted statements implicating him in espionage.
Astakhov said last week he was hopeful for Pope after one of the prosecution's key witnesses, Professor Anatoly Babkin, withdrew his original testimony incriminating Pope.
Babkin said in court that the testimony had been made under pressure from the domestic security service, the FSB.
Pope was arrested last April by the FSB for allegedly buying secret data on the Shkval torpedoes from Babkin, a professor at Moscow's elite Bauman technical university.
Pope, of State College, Pa., is the founder of CERF Technologies International, a company specializing in studying foreign maritime equipment.
The case has become a thorn in Rusian-U.S. relations.
President Clinton has personally asked for Pope to be freed on health grounds. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the judicial process must run its course before he can consider a pardon or an early release.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Peterson, a Pennsylvania Republican, who has visited Moscow with Pope's wife to plead for his release, said she was not surprised by the prosecution's demand.
"We're still hoping for a quick conclusion," said spokeswoman Jennifer Bennett. "We know he will probably be convicted, but we knew he wouldn't get a fair trial and we just need to get him home."