WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2020) The legal defense team of Russian citizen Victor Bout, who serves a prison sentence in the US state of Illinois, is considering the possibility of filing a petition for his release amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Bout's lawyer Alexey Tarasov told Sputnik.
"We assessing of such the possibility at this moment," Tarasov said on Friday.
The determination on whether to file a petition will be based on the extend of the spread of the novel coronavirus Illinois and� the prison in question, he said.
At present, it does not look like the novel coronavirus has spread in the prison, Tarasov noted.
"Bout indicated that he was in isolation and has been given a mask," Tarasov said, noting that he spoke with his client by phone last week. "I understand they have one mask per week."
Bout was arrested in a US sting operation in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008 and extradited two years later to face charges of conspiring to kill Americans and of supplying Colombian rebels with weapons.
In 2011, a US court sentenced Bout to 25 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Last week, Russian ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said that she would ask the US Department of Justice to let Russian prisoners, including Bout, to serve out their time in Russia.
