US appeals court upholds sentence to Russian businessman Viktor Bout

Federal court of appeals in New York on Friday upheld a sentence to the Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year jail term in the U.S. on charges of entering conspiracy to kill Americans. By upholding the sentence, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York turned down an appeal filed by Bout’s lawyer Albert Dayan, who conveyed the man’s complaint over being victimized by vindictive prosecution. Bout, who is serving the term in the Marion high security jail some 500 kilometers of the south of Chicago, is kept in the so-called Communications Management Unit. Viktor Bout, a former officer of the Soviet Air Force, was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008 and was extradited to the U.S. in November 2010. A year later, a panel of twelve jurors passed a guilty verdict on him for what the Americans insisted had been a conspiracy to sell arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia /FARC/, which is listed in the U.S. among prime terrorist groupings and which, allegedly, intended to kill U.S. soldiers.