Convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has been sentenced to 25 years in a U.S. jail, called on Russia on Thursday to launch a legal suit against the United States and Thailand on his behalf.
“I would like to ask State Duma lawmakers to have Russia file a lawsuit on my behalf against the United States and Thailand to an international сourt,” Bout said, speaking by phone from his Brooklyn cell during a video link with his wife between New York and Moscow organized by RIA Novosti.
Last week, a U.S. court sentenced Bout to 25 years in jail for conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and sell arms to Colombian militants. He maintains his innocence.
Bout called for a special commission to be set up at the State Duma to “establish facts and the truth” about his arrest in Thailand in March 2006 as a result of a sting operation in which U.S. informants posed as Colombian rebels, his subsequent extradition to the United States and his trial.
Bout’s wife, Alla, said during the video link that “four petitions addressed to [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov have been filed to the Russian Foreign Ministry” on her husband’s behalf concerning the hoped-for lawsuit against the United States and Thailand.
She said, however, she was not sure about the outcome of their initiative “because there has been no such precedent” in Russian history.
