Viktor Bout Ill in US Prison But Medical Examination Postponed - Spouse

BANGKOK (Sputnik) - Russian businessman Viktor Bout, currently incarcerated in the United States, fell sick with a severe flu but he has been told that a medical examination would take place only two weeks later, his wife Alla Bout told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"Viktor fell ill about a week ago, he had a fever… There is no doctor in Marion's prison, where he is located… Yesterday, Viktor asked for medical help. He was received by a prison official, not a doctor, whose task is to enter complaints of patients into the computer. He informed Viktor that a doctor would be in prison only two weeks later and then he would examine him," Alla Bout said.

READ MORE: Many US Prisoners Against Deterioration of Relations With Russia — Viktor Bout

In 2008, Bout was arrested in Bangkok in a joint operation between Thai and US authorities on charges of allegedly agreeing to supply Colombian rebels with weapons and therefore conspiring to kill US nationals. He was extradited to the United States in 2010 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Bout’s attorneys requested that the case be reviewed in connection with new circumstances in 2015, but a first-instance court ruled against it in October of that year. Further appeals for reviewing the case, filed with the Appeals Court of New York and the US Supreme Court, were also rejected.

In May 2016, US judge Shira Scheindlin, who sentenced Bout, said in an interview with The New York Times newspaper that she gave the shortest sentence she could in such circumstances, but added that the punishment was excessive and inappropriate, and that the arrest took place after a false-flag intelligence operation against Bout.