Viktor Bout’s case

The decision of the federal court in New York sentenced the Russian citizen Viktor Bout (whom the jury found guilty of dealing illegal arms) to a prison sentence of 25 years. The case concerned the Russian authorities. The State Duma wants to establish a committee to support Bout.

Alla Bout, Viktor’s wife, doesn’t agree with the sentence: “We will use all opportunities presented by the US judicial system. We will try to appeal the court’s decision, but there’s a catch: we can appeal only those arguments of the defense and the prosecution that were cited during the trial. Our appeal will be based mainly on procedural mistakes, and here comes our lawyer, so he will correct me if I’m wrong. But the case is far too complicated, it’s political by nature, so I don’t believe the appeal will be satisfied. Viktor himself doesn’t believe in its success, it is obvious from the very verdict of the jury. As for other possibilities, we don’t know how long the appeal will be processed, but judging from experience, it will take long, possibly more than a year.”

“He said he doesn’t know the sum of the fine yet, but it’s some 15-20 million,” Albert Dayan, Bout’s attorney explains. “The law says that the judge can set a fine, $15 million. But this fine doesn’t mean his freeing. The fine and the sentence term are not connected with each other.”

I’ve asked the judge to recommend him to get transferred closer to New York. In this case his family could visit him, a couple of times a week. When the judge made the decision, we perceived it as success, because if the judge thought Viktor had intentions to sell armament, she wouldn’t sentence him for a minimal term.

The US sent special operatives... They proposed Viktor to supply armament to Central America. Four times Viktor rejected this proposal. The operatives said they are interested in purchasing planes. One of operatives sent e-mail to Viktor: “Viktor, we should deal with armament supply, we need to persuade them that we can do it.”

It was their suggestion that Viktor went to meet with them, and he brought booklets about two planes he was going to sell, he wanted to make 5 million dollars. Then they asked him again about arms shipments. He understood that they might not buy his planes if he at least didn’t promise to look into the issue. He told them he knew nothing about the arms trade, and that he had to ask the FM if it is even possible. But they still asked him to try and offered anything he needed to get started.  He said: “Pay 5 million for my planes, I’m ready to sell them right away, and the rest – I’ll try to find it out for you.” Viktor, like any other Russian person, can’t understand why he is being charged with a crime he didn’t actually commit. They only talked about arms trading, but that was enough for the jury. The operatives orchestrated everything and organized the meeting, and lured Bout there under the pretext of buying his planes, and then had this conversation about arms trading, and Bout took the bait not knowing that he could get 25 years in prison for such talk in America. The operatives figuratively tied the judge’s hands, as she couldn’t have given a lesser term, even though she wanted to – she said that almost openly. They also manipulated the emotions of the jury: during their encounters with Bout they deliberately told awful things about Americans, and Bout supported these words – logically, if you’re a businessman and someone is ready to buy something from you for $5 million, you’d support anything they say, it’s only natural.”

In order to get transferred to Russia he has to admit his guilt, but I wouldn’t recommend that, the defense advises that he follows through with his innocence plea. “If Russia is going to ask the US to let Bout spend his term in Russia. You see, a state wouldn’t imprison someone if it believes this person is innocent,” Albert Dayan says. “So if Russia would let Bout spend his term of incarceration in one of its prisons, it would have to have some grounds for that, Bout would have to confess. But he has nothing to confess, he has never broken any law.”

Viktor himself is sure that he will return to Russia: “I would also like to ask the Duma to assign a special commission that would finally investigate and settle the issue of the mythical $6 billion that the US financial services had allegedly detained and from which they are trying to confiscate 15 million. I also ask you to investigate the reports of the so-called UN ‘experts’, who presented their reports to the UN Defense Council back in 2000. These reports were grounded on nothing but rumors, lies and misinformation. I don’t believe in the success of our appeal, as the procedure I was subjected to here was not a court of justice, it was an inquisition. I was prosecuted not for my actions, but for the myth they themselves created and believed in. I believe that if Russia takes the matter into its own hands and declares its position decisively, I will be home very soon.

I expected to be sentenced to life in prison, but they gave me only 25 years, and that means that the judge herself doesn’t see any proof of my alleged crime. She referred to the UN reports, to my ‘reputation’ as an arms dealer, but during the process she forbade my defense team to interrogate those UN experts, she said the hearings should be limited to this single precedent. But in the end she referred to those UN materials herself, and it’s a crying violation of the procedure. Unlike America, in Russia you actually have to do something to go to prison, but all the rumors have no grounds, there’s never been any proof that I ever took up the arms trade.

As for the conditions in Brooklin prison, to which I was recently transferred, they are satisfactory, I have no complaints, I am treated equally, like all the other prisoners.”

“As an American attorney I still believe in American justice and I will keep doing all I can here,” Albert Dayan says. “As for the international court, of course, I’ll help collect the papers, etc, but in the international court itself Bout would have to use the services of other lawyers.”