Moscow to push for Bout’s return – Foreign Ministry
11:30 03/11/2011 MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia said on Thursday it would push for Viktor Bout’s return following his conviction in an arms deal case by the United States.
“Our goal is to return him to the motherland,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
Lukashevich also said that the guilty verdict against Bout was made under unprecedented pressure from Washington.
“It is outrageous that Bout’s case was deliberately surrounded by negative background coming directly from U.S. legislators…it puts into question the grounds of the accusation and the justice of the court’s decision,” Lukashevich said.
On Wednesday, the jury in the Federal District Court of New York unanimously agreed that Bout was guilty of conspiracy to kill U.S. authorities and citizens, to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles and to provide support to terrorists.
The court will announce Bout's sentence on February 8. He could receive a life sentence.
Shortly after the announcement of the verdict, Bout’s wife, Alla, wrote on her Facebook page: “It is hard to comment on what has happened…I did not have the strength to listen to the verdict as I realized I would not restrain myself from tears.”
“I would not want anyone to have to go through all this horror with courts and the incessant hounding by the press,” she added.
Former Russian army officer Bout was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents and extradited to the United States in November 2010 after spending more than two and half years in Thai prisons.
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