World News 07-12-2000 Life Sentence For US "Spy" who: Former US Naval intelligence officer Edmond Pope what: Given 20 year sentence for spying where: MOSCOW when: Yesterday snippet: "A Moscow court threw down a challenge to the United States yesterday," reports The Telegraph, "when it convicted an American businessman of spying and gave him the maximum jail sentence of 20 years." 54 year-old former Naval intelligence officer Edmond Pope admits that he acquired blueprints of a high-speed Russian Shkval torpedo but, explains the BBC, during his six week trial he "argued that the information was already in the public domain". Mr Pope, who suffers from a rare form of bone cancer, is the "founder of CERF Technologies International," says The Independent, "a company specialising in studying foreign maritime equipment." "I really believe that if we don`t get him to a hospital soon, he will die," his wife told the press. The White House has spoken out in support, calling the conviction "unjustified and wrong". "I am not a spy," he said yesterday. You must let me go home to my family. I need immediate medical care." He now has has seven days to appeal against the sentence, continues The Mirror, "which also carries a £200million fine". [... more]

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