Viktor Bout’s attorneys hope for case revision in US Supreme Court
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22.02.2017
The attorneys of Viktor Bout passed a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States requesting to avoid the sentence, according to TASS. The petition is to be delivered within a day from Texas to the US capital where Mr. Bout is serving his sentence.
According to Bout’s attorney Alexey Tarasov, the sentence to his defendant was lawless. Due to newly discovered circumstances, the sentence is to be banned and the case is to be sent for revision.
The new information implies that British Andrew Smulyan who was named in the case as Bout’s accomplice appeared to be an undercover agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It means that Bout could not enter into the criminal conspiracy with him.
The court believes that this information is new in the case and was received from a disinterested party. The prosecutors were aware of that and they should have provided this new information to the attorneys according to the law, however, it has not been done.
Tarasov reminds that US Supreme Court agrees to revise only few cases and if an attorney is involved, it is about only 5 percent of appeals’ total number.
Besides, Alexey Tarasov added that Mr. Bout’s case influenced the judicial cooperation between Russia and America immensely.
According to information service of Russkiy Mir foundation, more than four years ago Russian entrepreneur Viktor Bout was pleaded guilty of criminal conspiracy of weapons sale and aiding terrorism and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was also fined for 15 million US dollars.
Russkiy Mir