During court testimony, Hasenfus asked for mercy. His lawyer said he wanted to "go and sin no more."

On Oct. 31, contra rebels offered to free 30 Sandinista soldiers they claim to hold prisoner if the government agreed to release Hasenfus. The Nicaraguan government immediately rejected the offer.

But in conversations with U.S. visitors and others, Sandinista officials have been carefully weighing the potential political effects in the United States of pardoning Hasenfus.

Defense Minister Humberto Ortega hinted to a group of pilots at a promotion ceremony on Saturday that Sandinista leaders are considering leniency.

"The revolution is condemning not the citizen Hasenfus but the irrational and unjust policy of the U.S. administration, " Ortega said.

Ortega described Hasenfus as the "father of a family. We have met his wife here. We know he has children. Certainly in his hometown in the United States he is a common citizen without major problems. Nonetheless, the irresponsible U.S. policy has led citizens like this to get in trouble, " Ortega said.

But the Sandinista press agency New Nicaragua last week quoted "judicial and legislative sources" as saying that chances for a short-term pardon were "practically nil."

Technically, a pardon must be approved by the Sandinista- dominated National Assembly at the request of President Daniel Ortega, said Justice Minister Rodrigo Reyes.

On Oct. 5, a Sandinista soldier shouldering a Soviet-made SA-7 missile shot down the plane in which Hasenfus was flying, a prop-driven C-123.

The plane's two U.S. pilots, both experienced in CIA supply flights in southeast Asia and elsewhere, were killed along with a Nicaraguan rebel radio operator.

Hasenfus parachuted to safety in a southern Nicaragua jungle, but was captured the next day.

In the weeks after his capture, Hasenfus told Sandinista interrogators and foreign journalists that he had been hired in June as a cargo handler in an extensive rebel supply operation based in El Salvador and Honduras.

He conceded that he had flown 10 earlier supply missions.

Hasenfus originally said he had been working for the CIA. But he later backtracked and said he had no direct knowledge of the identity of his employers. Reagan administration officials have denied that Hasenfus worked for the U.S. government.

Before Hasenfus was formally charged Oct. 20, his family designated as defense lawyer former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell. Nicaraguan authorities, arguing that he was not a member of he Nicaraguan bar, refused to certify Bell, who in turn designated Sotelo to defend Hasenfus.

After Saturday's verdict the U.S. Embassy derided the proceedings as a "show trial . . . to convict Hasenfus with a maximum of publicity."

The statement said many "basic due process rights under international and Nicaraguan law" had been violated.