MARION /Illinois/, September 18. /TASS/. Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen convicted in the United States, on Wednesday met with his wife and daughter for the first time since 2012, a TASS correspondent reported.
Alla Bout and her daughter arrived to the US Penitentiary in Marion at about 8:30 local time (16:30 Moscow time). The meeting lasted about four hours. It was their first meeting since Bout was convicted by a US court in 2012.
Alla Bout earlier told reporters the prison administration permitted four-hour visits to Bout on Wednesdays and Thursdays, as well as Saturdays and Fridays. Bout’s family members have purchased return tickets for October 28. "Our presence here will depend not only on how the meetings with Viktor go, but on our opportunities, our financial means," the wife told reporters.
Viktor Bout was apprehended in the Thai capital of Bangkok in 2008 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by a local court at the request of the US. He was charged with conspiracy to deliver weapons to a group calling itself the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States. In 2010, Bout was extradited to the United States. In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and a fine of $15 mln.