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Moscow hopes for ’fair trial’ for Russian alleged arms dealer in Thailand

22 July 2010 22:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Russia hopes that a Russian businessman suspected of arms trafficking, who faces possible extradition to the United States, will be given a fair trial, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.
Former Russian army officer Viktor Bout, 44, remains in custody in a Thai jail after the Bangkok Criminal Court refused last August to extradite him to the United States, where he is facing four terrorism-related charges and a possible life sentence. He has repeatedly denied the accusations.
Lavrov said he discussed the Bout case during a meeting with his Thai counterpart Kasit Phirom.
"For our part, we stressed that the nearly one-year-long consideration of an appeal against the Thai court verdict is beginning to raise questions," the Russian minister said.
In August 2009, a Thai court ruled in Bout’s favor, denying the U.S. extradition request due to a lack of evidence and because the case was politically motivated. However, he remains in custody because the United States filed new charges against him.
The new charges include conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, money laundering conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy.
The United States appealed the ruling denying the extradition but the Thai court has yet to rule on the appeal.
In April, a Bangkok court dismissed Bout’s claim against a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officer. In his claim, Bout asserted that U.S. officers violated Thai laws when arresting him in March 2008. However, the court said the DEA agent’s whereabouts could not be established.
The court previously rejected Bout’s claims against another two DEA agents, who had also participated in his arrest, on the grounds that they were U.S. embassy staff and had diplomatic immunity.
Bout denies all charges and says he has never been involved in the arms trade.