As Viktor Bout chats up Muslim prisoners in the federal penitentiary at Marion, Ill. and pines for Voice of Russia broadcasts (according to recent Russian media accounts), his defense team is pushing a Hail-Mary legal appeal strategy based on charges of U.S. corruption in Thailand.
Bout’s New York attorney charged in several recent Russian media reports that Bout’s 2010 extradition to the U.S. from Thailand was marred by heavy pressure from U.S. authorities, including bribes and intimidation of Thai judges. Attorney Albert Dayan was quoted this week by the Voice of Russia as saying “powerful evidence exists in this case that the Thai judges were compromised by dispersive efforts of many, the names of which I’m not going to disclose now…” Dayan said he planned to subpoena unnamed witnesses.
Dayan tried to raise concerns about extradition abuses during Bout’s trial last year but was spurned by Judge Schira Sheindlin. If the appeal reaches U.S. courts, Dayan could also run into evidence that Russian nationals had tried to bribe Thai officials to aid in efforts to thwart the U.S. extradition. Wikileaks publications of U.S. diplomatic cables showed that U.S. diplomats warned Thai officials that unnamed Russians offered bribes to Thai law enforcement officials to provide testimony favorable to Bout.
Bout is serving a 25-year prison sentence at Marion for conspiring to aid terrorists and kill Americans. He was convicted last year in charges stemming from a sting operation led against him in 2008 by U.S. narcotics agents.