U.S. Businessman Charged With Spying In Russia Flies To Germany
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) - American businessman Edmond Pope who was granted a pardon by Russian president Vladimir Putin after being sentenced to twenty years in prison on spying charges, took off on a plane to Germany on his way to the U.S.
Pope was released Thursday, two hours after his wife Cheri and U.S. embassy officials arrived at Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison. Russian police cars then escorted the couple to Moscow’s international airport where they boarded a plane to Ramstein, Germany, where physicians at the U.S. Air Force base there would check him, before flying home.
Pope has been kept in custody for the past eight months and was the first Westerner accused of spying charges since the end of the Cold War in Russia. He was also the first American to be convicted in an intelligence-related case in 40 years.
Pope was arrested for trying to gather information about a state-of-the-art high-speed torpedo, Russian authorities said.
Following U.S. efforts to free Pope, with even personal intervention by President Bill Clinton, the Russian President agreed to grant him a pardon based on humanitarian grounds as Pope is fighting a battle with cancer.
Putin also stated that the pardon was also made to preserve U.S.-Russian relations, hoping that the case would not negatively impact future American business in the Russian Federation.
Washington has been critical of the arrest and believed the court conviction was biased towards the Russian secret service. However, they welcomed Pope’s release.
“It is something that we have worked very hard on for eight months to try to secure his release, and we’re happy that he will soon have the opportunity to be reunited with his family back in the United States,” said White House National Security Adviser P.J. Crowley on Thursday while traveling with Clinton on a trip to Britain.
Pope, who is a former naval intelligence officer and current owning partner of CERF Technologies, which specializes in studying foreign maritime equipment in the U.S., has defended his quest for the information saying the plans he purchased were already sold elsewhere and that the data was publicly published, and not Russian state secrets.
