The lawyer of Russian national Viktor Bout, convicted in the U.S. on arms trafficking charges, requested a court to improve his client's incarceration conditions.
In a request to the Federal District Court of New York, lawyer Albert Dayan compares Bout’s “barbarian” incarceration conditions to those of the Count of Monte Cristo, a fictional character by Alexandre Dumas who spent 14 years in a prison cell.
Dayan says his defendant, who is denied the right to walk in the prison yard, has to spend “days and nights” in his solitary cell and is denied “basic, God-given rights, like fresh air and sun.”
Former Russian army officer Bout was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents and extradited to the United States in November 2010 after spending more than two and half years in Thai prisons.
On November 2, the jury of the Federal District Court of New York unanimously found Bout guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. officials and citizens, of acquiring and intending to use anti-aircraft missiles and to providing support to terrorists. His verdict is due to be announced on Wednesday.
Bout, who had denied all charges against him, faces from 25 years to life in prison.
