Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is being made into a scapegoat and has been transformed into a "substitute" for Osama bin Laden, his wife Alla said on Monday.
"Viktor Bout is the victim of the unscrupulous work by some UN experts and a number of U.S. and British politicians and journalists who have blown up UN experts' suspicions into a global campaign to demonize him," she said.
The aim of this campaign is to create the image of a major victory in the fight against terrorism, she said.
"The implication is this: We have not caught bin Laden yet, but we have caught Viktor Bout."
She said her husband was innocent of the charges against him and she would do all she could to prove that.
Bout, 43, was extradited to the United States on Tuesday after spending more than two and half years in Thai prisons. He was officially charged in a New York City court on Wednesday. The charges against him include conspiring to supply arms to terrorist groups and kill U.S. nationals.
The next hearing in the case of the former Russian officer, dubbed the Merchant of Death by global media, will be held on January 10 next year. Bout could face from 25 years to life behind bars if convicted of all four charges against him.
On Wednesday, Alla Bout lashed out at the Russian authorities for allowing the extradition to proceed. She said Moscow did not do enough to protect her husband.
BANGKOK, November 22 (RIA Novosti)
