The wife of suspected Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, who is in Thailand awaiting extradition to the United States, filed a petition to the Thai parliament on Thursday from her husband asking for an inquiry into his case.
"I went to the parliament today with a petition in English and Thai from my husband," Alla Bout told RIA Novosti. "I was met by Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs Tophong Chayyasan, who personally took the documents."
Bout had planned to hand over the petition to the Thai parliament on September 4, during a visit of the Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs to the prison, but the prison administration forbade it.
"I told Chayyasan that I believe in a favorable outcome for Viktor as long as he remains on Thai territory," Alla said.
A second set of U.S. charges against Bout was dropped on Tuesday, bringing the so-called Merchant of Death one step closer to extradition on an earlier U.S. request.
Bout, 44, was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 at the request of the United States. His extradition to the United States was ordered by the Thai appeals court on August 20, but was not carried out because the United States brought the second set of charges against him in February.
In accordance with Thai law, Bout could not be extradited until the second set of charges were brought to court, however, now that the second request has been rejected, Bout will be prosecuted in accordance with the August 20 court decision.
Bout must be handed over to the U.S. side within three months after the announcement of the sentence. If he is not handed over within three months, he must be released and sent back to Russia.
BANGKOK, October 7 (Ria Novosti)
