By John Iams
Associated Press Writer
Friday, Oct. 27, 2000; 12:52 p.m. EDT

MOSCOW –– Russian officials on Friday turned down a request by the wife of an American accused of spying in Russia to visit her husband a second time, and an appeal to meet with President Vladimir Putin went unanswered, a U.S. official said.

"This case is disappointment after disappointment," said Rep. John Peterson, the congressman of accused spy Edmond Pope.

Pope, 54, a retired U.S. Navy officer from State College, Pa., was arrested on April 3 in Moscow on charges of trying to buy classified plans for a high-speed torpedo used by the Russian Navy.

Cheri Pope was allowed to visit her husband for an hour Wednesday, but requests to see him again Thursday and Friday were rejected, Peterson said. The court has also denied a request to allow English-speaking doctors to examine Pope, who has suffered from bone cancer, and would not allow his wife to give him clothing and medicine.

The disease was in remission when he traveled to Russia six months ago, but his relatives fear it may have returned.

Cheri Pope said Friday that her husband appeared somewhat healthier since her last visit in August, but that he was deteriorating mentally.

Since he was jailed, "he has gone through the gamut of emotions: angry, frustrated, pessimistic, very sad," she said. "He is very fragile."

The presiding judge has turned down dozens of defense motions put forth in the closed-door hearing by Pavel Astakhov, Pope's Russian attorney.

"We asked for an independent translator, of course the judge said no. We asked for a jury, the judge said no," Peterson said. "We asked to question Pope's accuser, the judge said no. We asked for an American observer, the judge said no."

Peterson, who will return to the United States with Cheri Pope on Saturday, said they also had requested meetings with Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, but those requests went unanswered.

He was pessimistic that Pope would be acquitted.

"The deck is stacked against Edmond Pope," he said. "There is no sunshine in this case."

Peterson said he believed that the case will only be resolved by negotiations between political leaders.

After Friday's court session, Astakhov said the woman who acted as Pope's translator in his dealings with Anatoly Babkin – the Bauman Institute professor who allegedly supplied the torpedo's technical data – testified that Pope had done nothing illegal, the Interfax news agency reported.

According to Astakhov, Tatiana Danilenko testified that Pope never pressured Babkin to reveal any secrets. If their talks touched on state secrets, Babkin told Pope so and the subject was never raised again.

Astakhov said he hoped the court would admit a file of certified medical documents on Pope's illness from the United States when the hearing resumes Monday.

Pope worked for the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. He later founded CERF Technologies International, a company specializing in studying foreign maritime equipment, and traveled to Russia 26 times.