Convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout was being held in a federal corrections transfer center in Oklahoma City at week’s end, apparently bound for a medium-security prison in Illinois where he will begin serving his 25-year sentence. A federal prison locator confirmed Bout is being held at the “Federal Transfer Center” near Oklahoma City’s airport. Federal prison officials have not confirmed Bout’s destination, but the inmate’s lawyer told Russian media he was being sent to the federal penitentiary at Marion, in central Illinois.
Bout’s lawyer, Albert Y. Dayan, had objected earlier when federal officials raised plans to house the Russian in a maximum-security facilty in Colorado often used for convicted terrorists and other national security risks. U.S. District Judge Schira Sheindlin, who who oversaw Bout’s trial, had warned she would not look kindly on such a move, and federal prosecutors and prison officials apparently reconsidered. U.S. officials have been concerned about Bout’s own safety since his arrest in Thailand in 2008. Bout’s lawyer and relatives argued that his restrictive, high-security regimen, which included a stay in a prison that isolated Bout for 23 hours a day, was aimed more at getting him to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement.