The defense of US spy suspect Edmond Pope made a final plea of innocence Friday in the six-week trial at a Moscow court that could sentence the ailing businessman to 20 years hard labor.
"Handing a cancer patient a 20-year sentence is tantamount to convicting him to death," Pope's chief attorney Pavel Astakhov told journalists after the hearing.
Pope himself, who suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, is scheduled to make a final statement Wednesday while a verdict is not expected before December 11.
State prosecutors have demanded that the court hand down the maximum sentence if Pope is found guilty of obtaining allegedly top-secret defense documents on Russia's high-speed underwater missile system Shkval.
Pope, a 54-year-old retired US naval intelligence officer, has consistently argued that the documents, which he admits purchasing from a Moscow-based scientist, were already in the public domain.
"Our analysis shows there is no support for the prosecutor's claims that Shkval is a unique torpedo," Pope's second attorney Andrei Andrusenko said.
"Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan all have this rocket technology. Even 1998, Kazakhstan exported 40 such rockets and technologies to China," he argued.
Pope and his defense team had prepared a 200-page dossier refuting the charges laid by the Russian security services (FSB, ex-KGB), and furnishing evidence and testimony that far outweighed the case for the prosecution.
"We are hoping the court will arrive at a just verdict," Astakhov said, adding: "We have proved to the whole world that Russia has independent lawyers who are ready to defend anybody irrespective of their nationality."
Moscow prosecutors meanwhile again argued that the defense failed to make a valid case and never even asked judges to reduce their client's sentence.
"The defense did not ask for a reduced sentence, and offered no convincing arguments," prosecutor Yury Volgin said.
On Wednesday the prosecution's call for Pope, who suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, to do 20 years hard labor in a Russian prison camp prompted the United States to renew calls for his release.
The prosecutor also demanded that Pope pay seven billion rubles (250 million dollars) in damages for allegedly blowing a hole in Russia's national security.
Nearly all prisoners in Russia serve their sentences in prison camps as opposed to conventional jails. Pope, like other inmates, would be subjected to a regime of hard labor if convicted.
Pope's trial and continued detention has strained already prickly Russian-US relations, with the House of Representatives urging President Bill Clinton to consider freezing most economic aid to Russia unless Pope is set free.
Pope is the first US national to stand trial for espionage here since 1960, when Gary Powers' U2 spy plane was downed over the Soviet Union.
Powers was convicted but later exchanged for a Soviet agent working in the United States -- MOSCOW (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
