A Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States has called on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to intervene in his case, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday.
A New York court dismissed the retrial of Russian Viktor Bout on Monday, a decision that the businessman denounced as “politically motivated.”
Bout told TASS that he had asked both Trump and the Russian government to intervene. Bout’s lawyer also confirmed that he could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The strange case of Viktor Bout: Read more on how a diamond heist and Russian gun smuggling lead to Donald Trump.
Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008 before being extradited to the United States in a bitter legal battle. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of trying to sell arms to Colombian FARC rebels.
"The Russian government proposed that this case should go to an international tribunal a year and a half ago,” Bout told TASS. “There, we could really sort through this swamp of a case.”
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment in the decision and said that the ministry would do everything possible to return Bout to Russia.
