The lawyer for American Edmond Pope, whose espionage trial begins Wednesday, says his client is innocent and should be cleared of all charges if he is allowed a fair hearing.

But Pavel Astakhov – one of Russia's leading defense lawyers, who also represents media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky – said that a fair trial is the one thing the Federal Security Service (FSB) is not likely to hand Pope.

"Unfortunately, it is very easy for the government to get the verdict it wants in this country," he said.

Pope, a 54-year-old former U.S. Navy captain who was arrested in his Moscow hotel room by the FSB on April 3 and held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison ever since, stands accused of collecting top-secret Russian technology and selling it to unnamed foreign organizations. FSB officials declined to comment for this story.

But Pope's defenders, including Astakhov, Pope's wife, Cheryl, and the U.S. government, insist that he is a businessman legitimately working with Russian scientists to market their inventions in the West.

When Pope's closed trial begins, FSB prosecutors will present 10 volumes of evidence claiming that on his most recent trip, as on 26 previous visits to Russia, Pope was clandestinely purchasing military secrets. The alleged secret that they have latched onto, Astakhov said, is the marine propulsion system Pope was in the process of buying when he was arrested.

Before he was arrested, Pope had already purchased part of the plans and technical data for a system used in surface and underwater vessels, and was tying up the rest of the deal, Astakhov said. But in leaks to the Russian press, the FSB has alleged that the system was an integral part of the Squall underwater missile, a top-secret piece of technology worth millions of dollars. Astakhov denied the charge, saying the system was developed 10 years ago and that Pope had budgeted only $30,000 for the purchase.

Government documents showing that the plans had been declassified were ruled inadmissible as evidence by the case's FSB-appointed judge, Astakhov said. Still, he said the law is behind Pope.

"We believe that he did not know and did not need to know that they were secret," he said. "There was no secret, and there was no way for him to check. He can't be charged for that. It's presumption of innocence."

But it wouldn't be the first time the law has turned against Pope. Russian law forbids prosecutors to try a sick man until he has been healed, but a judge denied Pope's request to delay the trial and to gain access to English-speaking cancer specialists. Pope's wife, Cheryl, says he is suffering from a relapse of a rare form of bone cancer, called hemangiopericytoma, with which he was diagnosed in 1986.

And the judge also denied his request for a jury trial, even though the right is guaranteed under the Russian Constitution.

The FSB, meanwhile, argues that Pope, whose tour in the U.S. Navy included a stint as an intelligence officer, is too dangerous a spy to be given much slack. And their star witnesses will likely be the two Russian scientists with whom Pope was negotiating. Both were initially imprisoned and later released after promising to cooperate with the investigation.

Since leaving the Navy in 1994, Pope has specialized in acquiring Russian military technology and converting it for civilian uses, first for Penn State University and then for two private firms. According to the FSB, that has all been a cover for his espionage – although they do not say for whom, specifically he is working, even in their case file, Astakhov said.

According to Astakhov, however, Pope was always careful to explain to Russian partners that he was not interested in secret material.

And Russian politicians have reacted angrily to calls from the United States for Pope to be let go, including a demand by the U.S. House of Representatives to impose sanctions on Russia until he is released.

"I think the House probably thinks America can do anything it pleases," said Gennady Seleznyov, the Communist speaker of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, according to Reuters. "This is the crudest interference in our criminal legislation."

Nonetheless, the pressure has reached the highest levels. After the United States made it a policy to bring up the case at every high-level meeting between American and Russian officials, President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB spy and FSB director, called in the case's chief investigator for a meeting, Astakhov said. Asked whether he was sure he could win, the investigator said yes. Putin reportedly then told the investigator to go ahead but warned him his job depended on winning.

Meanwhile, in preparing his defense, Astakhov has had to face hurdles that haven't changed since the Soviet era. The case files could only be reviewed in Lefortovo, and any notes had to be left with investigators. To avoid giving away his strategy, Astakhov said he committed everything to memory and wrote it all down as soon as he left the building. But he recently found out that the FSB were listening to his phone calls. So, there will likely be few surprises for the prosecution, he said.

The trial, which will be closed to the press and will feature an anti-eavesdropping device – which Astakhov said makes "a really annoying noise" – is likely to last 20 working days. If convicted, Astakhov said he and Pope will likely appeal to Russia's Supreme Court and to Putin, if he'll hear the case.