Convicted U.S. Businessman asks Putin for release

Pope, in a Poignant letter to the Commission, asked "that Ibe released from prison to return to my family in Pennsylvania and receive health care.

"I request this release to be as soon as possible as myfather is terminally ill and I wish to visit him one last time," Pope said in his letter, read to Reuters by Jennifer Bennett, spokeswoman for U.S. Congressman John Peterson.

The Republican has been following the case closely.

The Commission is an advisory body and it is up to Putin tomake the final decision.

Moscow’s top court convicted Pope on Wednesday and orderedhim to serve his term in a maximum security penal colony, making the former naval intelligence officer the first U.S. Citizen to be jailed for spying since the end of the Cold War.

Earlier this year, Putin refused to intervene, sayingJustice had to take its course. However, he hinted that he could take Pope’s health into account if asked to decide his fate.

The businessman denies he stole secret designs of ahigh-speed Russian torpedo, saying the information he purchased was widely available. But a pardon request precludes any appeal.

WIFE CHERI IN DEEP SHOCK

In Washington, White House National Security Adviser SandyBerger told reporters the United States believed Pope’s conviction was "unjustifiable and wrong".

"We have said to the Russians at every level, from thePresident on down…that we believe he should be released on humanitarian grounds, if nothing else," Berger said.

Pope’s wife Cheri, who was still in deep shock on Thursdayover the court decision, said earlier she had also written to Putin to ask for clemency.

"I begged President Putin to give me my husband back," CheriPope told Reuters. "I sent him a letter and I asked him, please, please, let me take him home to a hospital, he’s very sick."

Pope spent a sleepless night in Moscow’s notorious LefortovoPrison following his conviction, his lawyer Pavel Astakhov said.

"He did not sleep at all last night because he was soshocked" by the verdict, Astakhov told Reuters. "He was expecting a decision like this, but he hoped that maybe there would be another verdict."

Pope’s conviction cast a pall over U.S.-Russian ties alreadystrained over arms control. Washington has warned it could hurt relations.

U.S. President Bill Clinton is under political pressure fromCongress to secure Pope’s immediate release or impose economic sanctions on Moscow in retaliation.

Peterson, who represents the couple’s home state, saidPope’s health had deteriorated sharply since the trial started. He urgently needed a medical check-up to see if his cancer had returned. "If it has, he will die," he said.

Peterson denounced as a fraud an "interview" with Pope onRussia’s RTR state television purportedly showing the American in good spirits and saying he had no regrets about visiting Russia despite his conviction.

"That was not a video from last night," said Peterson. "Hedid not have the same clothes on (that he wore in court) and he would never be in that demeanour. He was in shock, he was devastated when he Left the courtroom."

The FSB domestic security service that provided the footagestonewalled questions about the authenticity of the interview.