Author: VK
The lawyers representing the interests of Victor Bout sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment for arms trade in the USA are asking the authorities of the U. S. for his pardon. The defense still hopes for his extradition, even though the sentence was passed three months ago.
Victor Burobin, the lawyer of the businessman, said at the press conference in Moscow that “American justice has never had the right to try Bout’s case in the mode in which it took place. We talked about it earlier, and we are talking about it today. The second point is that there are no facts of evidence and no crimes which Viktor Bout committed. For what has he been convicted, or what actions are imputable to him? This is a conversation with U.S. intelligence agents in Thailand about the fact that he could supposedly supply weapons to the Colombian organization 'FARC', which the Americans consider to be a terrorist organization. This conversation is the reason. There are no other components of the crime or anything like the reporters say, for instance, "death merchant" or almost the best friend of Osama bin Laden. There is nothing like this, his crime is just this conversation. But he is charged with four components of the crime, as is stated in all the publications. The first one is the so-called conspiracy to sell weapons to a Colombian terrorist organization; hence, they took the following thesis: that he could kill a U.S. citizen in Colombia with these weapons. This is the second part. He could also kill an American officer serving in Colombia with the same weapons. They especially considered the alleged supply of such weapons as air-to-ground missiles.
Albert Dayan and Viktor Burobin, the lawyers of Viktor Bout, are going to use three options in order to defend their client. “First, there is a possibility of appeal, and this possibility will be used. We can appeal twice: the first time we will appeal to a higher court, the second time - to the Supreme Court. We believe, as well as Viktor does, that he did not commit any crime and he is not to blame, and he will make complaints in the order provided by U.S. law.
Secondly, we decided to consider and address the American Committee on Pardons, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity; maybe the American president will have mercy on our citizen, because if we remember, in 2000 there was a U.S. citizen, Edmond Pope, who was sentenced to 20 years in a Russian prison for spying for America. On December 6, 2000, he was convicted (Vladimir Putin was Russian President), and on December 14 he got on a plane and left for America. He was pardoned.
And finally, we had a conversation today with our public servants in the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the possibility of the extradition of Viktor Bout to his homeland so that he serve his sentence”, - Burobin said calling this option “the most deplorable” possible result of his work. – “In the worst option we will do the following: there is the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons of 1983. This Convention was signed by America in 1985 and by Russia in 2007, although it is a European convention. It allows you to put the question that the man convicted in some country can be sent home. Victor is interested in this”, - the lawyer said.
Alla Bout, Victor Bout’s spouse, said at the press conference that “we met at the International Legal Department just on this issue. Accordingly, I was asked by the lawyer of our side to prepare several documents that they need to send an inquiry to the Ministry of Justice of the United States in order to launch the mechanism of this case. I am referring to the convention in 1983, its use and the return of Victor home according to it. Clearly, this bureaucratic procedure will take a considerable amount of time. And, in fact, the first result that might be expected is a response from the Justice Department of the United States as to whether they are willing and able to cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia”.
According to Alla Bout, “a certain period is over. We had the Bangkok period, it was very difficult. As for the Bangkok period, I can say that the criminal case is not closed. In Thailand, the court will continue the hearings about his illegal extradition from this state, despite everything. Our new lawyer has just taken charge, because of the death of our former one. Apparently, the new hearings will take place at the end or in the middle of August. In Thailand, the court invited the former Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Corrections and the head of the prison. There are still no documents in the court. The grounds for Bangkok is the resolution of the criminal court of the Kingdom of Thailand for extradition of Victor to the United States of America. Last year I went there as the representative of Victor, as he himself could not be there, and, accordingly, I gave evidence in the court about his extradition.
The trial in the United States is ended, now he is in prison where he will serve the term to which he was sentenced by the federal judge. Despite all our battles and the recommendations of federal judges on the conditions of his detention (in America, I want to remind you, it was a special hearing on the matter), Victor was kept in an isolation ward for almost 15 months. He was very exhausted and had a problem with food; he almost starved. In this regard, the lawyer also made a complaint, and the decision of the federal judge issued on the basis of these accusations was that she emphasised that he is not a terrorist, and the prosecutors, the Ministry and the Department of Corrections had no right to house him in such conditions. Strictly speaking, therefore, he was transferred to the general regime prison in Brooklyn. That was about six months ago, before his transfer to the place of punishment, so the prosecutors tried to send him to a high-security prison once again, I do not know for what reason, despite the recommendations of a federal judge. It was a great scandal, because it was all done quietly, nobody knew anything about it. Unfortunately, we could not improve the situation today again, Victor is not in a general regime prison. His regime is a regime of so-called "limited communications", i.e., he is in solitary confinement. He has a right to one hundred printed pages per month and for two phone calls a week of 5-10 minutes to family members or to his lawyers. We do not know anything about the possibility of the use of any library; the information he can get is completely limited. The only thing he told me about when we talked on Wednesday was the fact that they open the cell at six o’clock in the morning and close it at ten, and he has the opportunity to go out and exercise in the conditions which are now available.
I have spoken with the representative of the Russian Embassy in Washington. Now they will be in charge of the case of Victor Bout concerning the fact that he has already been moved from New York. Russian embassy officials suppose they will visit him before July 15. Due to the fact that he was tucked somewhere, far away, I’m sorry, the visits of consular officers, lawyers, and even my visits will be very difficult to carry out, because the locality which is the closest to the jail is at a distance of about 300 km. Transport does not go there; we will have to take a car or to get to this prison in some other way. We do not know where to stay, and therefore there will be huge problems with my visits there. Apparently, the meetings will take place once a week, according to the detention regime. The conditions of detention are also not clear until today; the staff of the embassy will probably visit him and clarify the possibility of any communication with him.
I can say about these conditions that during the process of his transfer from one prison to another, he was kept in the transit prison for almost twelve days in solitary confinement, with no possibility of going outdoors. He was in solitary confinement and was not able to communicate with anyone. The only opportunity was to track his movements through the prison and judicial information networks; according to the number of a prisoner, you can track his location. Here we saw that he was there, and then we saw that he has finally moved to the place where he is today.
I can say that I do not quite agree with, for example, the point of view of our defense, I mean the lawyers, about the appeal. The reason for this is that I do not think it possible, due to the fact that a lot of politics is involved in this issue, and this was a request to ensure that Victor was brought to America, because such a process is impossible in no other country. The purpose of his extradition is clear – it is a politicized process. Firstly, this is a show trial of a Russian citizen. Secondly, this seems to be the creation of some precedent of America's right to ensure that America will play magistrate in many states and its right to judge citizens of any country outside America and to bring them to the U. S. The very form of the extradition of a person who supposedly represents a danger to the United States government is not clear, that is, it can be anything, anywhere, and the issue of the legality of extradition shall not be considered in any way. So I think that it is useless to fight in the courts: if it is a political order, it will also be lobbied, and the solution will be unambiguous. Well, we will gain five or ten years, but it really does not solve the problem. My position is that there must be another way associated with the political will, Russia's decision at the political level, the political agreement on his return. How can we do it? It is possible, as Viktor said, that we will use the Convention. The second option is an exchange, which is very doubtful. The third is a pardon by the President of the United States”.
