Edmond D. Pope (Russian: Эдмонд Поуп) is a retired American intelligence officer-turned-businessman, convicted by a Russian court in 2000 on charges of spying for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for buying up and smuggling classified military equipment out of the country as scrap metal.[1] 253 days into his custody, Pope was pardoned by the newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin as US government claimed that Pope had a rare form of bone cancer.[2] Pope has always maintained his innocence and continues to assert that the Russian authorities used him as a scapegoat for their broken system.[3]
Edmond D. Pope | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, retired naval captain |
| Spouse | Cheri |
| Website | Official website |
In an interview with CNN, Pope spoke of a plot by unspecified people in the US, as well as the KGB and the Russian mafia, as a part of which Pope was being slowly poisoned in the Lefortovo Prison. Pope asserted that this was done with the hopes that he would eventually have to be transferred to a hospital, abducted on his way, and smuggled out of the country. Pope claims that Congressman John E. Peterson and Pope's wife "learned of this plot and put a stop to it before it was carried out," for which he was grateful.[3]
Book
editA book recounting his experience was published in 2001.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Falunin, Valeri (December 19, 2001). "Secret Operations of the Military Counterintelligence (Тайные операции военной контрразведки)". Moskovskij Komsomolets (in Russian). Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
Interview with Lieutenant-General Head of the FSB Department for the Moscow Military District
- ^ Козловский, Владимир (December 7, 2000). "Дело Поупа: США негодуют". Русская служба Би-би-си. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
- ^ a b "Edmond Pope: Arrested and imprisoned for espionage in Russia". CNN. November 5, 2001. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
- ^ Pope, Edmond D.; Shachtman, Tom (November 14, 2001). Torpedoed: An American Businessman's True Story of Secrets, Betrayal, Imprisonment in Russia, and the Battle to Set Him Free. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-34873-2.
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