WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2019) The family of Russian national Viktor Bout, jailed in the United States, does not believe they should file a request with the US authorities to hand him over to Russia after three such requests concerning Russian national Konstantin Yaroshenko, serving a prison term in the United States, too, have been rejected, Bout's wife, Alla, told Sputnik.
"The situation is more or less clear now because they have already rejected [a request to hand over] Yaroshenko. That is why, we are not filing anything because the answer will be clear and it will be just stupid to lose two years ... There are no specifics so far," Alla Bout said in a phone conversation.
In late September, Viktor Bout's wife and daughter arrived in the United States where they met with him for the first time in nine years. They currently have four meetings left before they leave for Russia.
The Russian Justice Ministry has send three requests to the United States to repatriate Yaroshenko under the Council Europe's 1983 Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. Such requests can be filed once in two years.
Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a joint operation between Thai and US authorities on charges of conspiring to kill US nationals by allegedly agreeing to supply Colombian rebels with weapons. In 2010, he was extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Bout has denied the charges.
Yaroshenko was captured in Liberia in 2010 and sentenced to 20 years in jail the following year in the United States on charges of conspiring to import drugs, which he denied. In 2016, the New York Court of Appeals refused to revise his sentence.
