Viktor Bout appealed to the Russian State parliament today to file an international lawsuit to free him from his looming 25 year sentence in an American maximum-security prison. In a video conference call from a New York detention center Thursday, the convicted Russian weapons dealer asked his native country’s “Duma” (legislature) for legal action against the U.S.
Bout also asked for action against Thailand, which extradited him to the U.S. for trial. And he asked the Russian government to organize a government commission to investigate his case. “I haven’t committed anything and I will make no deals and no confessions,” Bout said. He was sentenced to a mandatory minimum 25-year prison term last week by a federal judge who spared him a maximum life sentence.
Despite the judge’s leniency, the Russian Foreign Ministry has called Bout’s 25 year sentence “baseless and biased” and warned the move could complicate relations between the U.S. and Russia. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would bring up Bout’s case during discussions with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Bout also denied having any ties with top Russian officials that protected his business interests. He said he had no past dealing with either Russian President-elect Vladmir Putin or with Putin’s Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin — who has been rumored to have been a past Bout ally.
—AP, “A Russian arms dealer who was convicted in the United States on terrorism charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison asked Russia on Thursday to file a lawsuit against the U.S. and Thailand on his behalf.”
—Los Angeles Times, “Convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, sentenced last week to 25 years in American prison, Thursday urged the Russian government to sue the United States on his behalf in order to help him get back to Russia.”