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US Supreme Court denies certiorari on Russian national Viktor Bout’s case

No reasons were provided

WASHINGTON, April 4. /TASS/. The United States Supreme Court on Monday rejected to grant certiorari on the case of Russian national Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison term in the United States on arms smuggling charges.

No reasons were provided.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on several dozens of cases, including Bout’s. The Court’s press service told TASS no additional comments on any of those cases will follow.

Viktor Bout’s legal team filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in late February. The document particularly says that the appeals court and the District Court for the Southern District of New York applied wrong legal criteria to assess the facts pointing to the prosecutor’s office keeping exculpatory evidence from the defense attorney. According to Tarasov, the evidence was enough for acquitting Bout.

Bout was detained in the Thai capital of Bangkok in 2008 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by a local court at the United States’ request. He was charged with conspiracy to deliver weapons to a group calling itself the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, regarded as a terrorist organization in 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 million U.S. dollars.

Bout is serving the term in Marion prison, Chicago, Illinois, 500 kilometers south of Chicago.

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