Lawyer to request better prison conditions for alleged arms dealer Bout
07:20 01/03/2011 NEW YORK, March 1 (RIA Novosti) - A lawyer of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout asked the court on Tuesday to improve incarceration conditions of his defendant.
Hearings into Bout's case are scheduled for March 3. The 44-year-old Russian, dubbed "The Merchant of Death," could face anything from 25 years to life in prison if found guilty.
Bout is being held in a high security bloc of a New York prison while he awaits trial on charges including conspiring to supply arms to a Colombian terrorist group and kill U.S. nationals. He denies all the charges against him.
Attorney Albert Dayan says strict prison conditions, under which Bout is allowed to communicate only through a glass panel, make it impossible to discuss the case properly and violate Bout's right for defense.
Bout's wife Alla earlier complained that her husband, a vegetarian, did not get proper food and his menu did not comply with the prescribed medicine that he has been taking for the last two months.
The former Soviet military officer was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents. He was extradited to the United States in November last year after spending more than two and half years behind bars.
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