Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement sharply criticizing the recent guilty verdict in the case of Russian citizen Viktor Bout. Bout was convicted in a New York court of attempting to sell in Thailand heavy weapons to Columbian terror group members (who in fact appeared to be U.S. agents provocateurs). The ministry states that Bout was “illegally extradited from Thailand under unprecedented political pressure from U.S. authorities”; that “unlawful methods of physical and psychological influence” were applied to Bout “contrary to relevant rules of the international law and to the international obligations of the U.S.”; that U.S. governmental bodies “pumped up a negative background impeding the objective consideration of facts”; that Bout was subjected to “unnecessary harsh conditions of detainment clearly designed to force him to come to terms with the ‘justice’"; and that “all that calls into question the very foundations on which the charges are based and, accordingly, the validity of the judicial act.” “The Russian Foreign Ministry will continue to take all measures to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of Viktor Bout as a citizen of Russia. Our goal is to achieve his return to the Homeland,” the statement concludes.
http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/0/959ED006173C64E44425793D0027E136
http://rt.com/news/viktor-bout-convicted-223/ (video)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment