WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th December, 2019) Visa formalities may be an impediment to regular family visits to Russian national Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison term in the United States and has recently been allowed to meet his wife and daughter for the first time since incarceration, his lawyer Alexey Tarasov told Sputnik.
"It was hard to arrange due primarily to the fact that [Bout's spouse] Alla couldn't get an American visa for a long time. She received a single-entry visa, which means that to come again she needs to apply for a new one," Tarasov said. "No-one knows how long it may take. The big question remains whether these visits will be regular or not."
Alla Bout and her daughter left the United States for Russia last Sunday after almost three months of visits to a jail near the town of Marion in the state of Illinois. Tarasov praised Russian diplomats for obtaining a rare permission for the Bout family to have throughout the first month of their stay four meetings a week, twice more than a regular prison schedule allows.
Tarasov said that an opportunity to see relatives gave a huge boost to his client's morale.
"I think it greatly encouraged and, I hope, energized him to take further steps to return home. He saw what it is all for," the lawyer added.
Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a joint operation between Thai and American authorities on charges of conspiring to kill US citizens 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.
