Jailed US citizen Edmond Pope was due to meet his lawyers in a Moscow prison Thursday to consider appealing against the 20-year prison sentence for espionage handed down by a Russian court.
Pope's lawyer, Pavel Astakhov, said the necessary papers had already been drafted and could be filed later Thursday if Pope approved the plan to launch an appeal to Russia's Supreme Court, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
A Moscow court sentenced the ailing 54-year-old businessman Wednesday to 20 years hard labour in a Russian prison camp, drawing a swift protest from Washington.
Astakhov, who was due to meet Pope in Moscow's Lefortovo prison at 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) Thursday, described the trial verdict as "biased and unfair".
It was the first spy trial of a US national in Russia in 40 years. The last involved the pilot of a U2 spy plane, Gary Powers, who was shot down in 1960 and convicted of espionage the following year.
Pope, a retired US naval intelligence officer, was found guilty of gathering top-secret defence documents relating to Russia's high-speed underwater Shkval missile.
But he argued throughout the six-week trial that the information was already in the public domain – MOSCOW (AFP)
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