After reportedly spending a sleepless night in his cell, Pope did not appeal the court's ruling but wrote a letter to Putin saying he would like to see his dying father and needed medical assistance, as he himself is suffering from a rare form of bone cancer.
The White House, the State Department, and Pope's family and friends dismissed the trial as unfair and appealed to Putin to pardon Pope. The presidential pardon commission prepared to hear the case Friday.
Anatoly Pristavkin, the head of the commission, said he expected Pope's appeal would receive a favorable hearing.
Pristavkin said the commission would "be as humane as always and recommend that the head of state pardon U.S. citizen Edmond Pope," the Interfax news agency reported.
Pope's lawyer Pavel Astakhov said his client no longer believed his case was a matter for the judiciary, but a political case to be resolved at the highest level.
The Pope case, the first time a U.S. citizen has been sentenced for espionage in Russia in 40 years, has become a major irritant in already tense relations between Moscow and Washington.
U.S. diplomats and businessmen said failure by Putin to find a solution to the Pope case would have significant negative repercussions on U.S.-Russian political and business ties.
In the last high-profile U.S. spy case in Russia, U.S. spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in 1960 and stood trial for espionage. He was later exchanged for a Soviet spy.
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