Viktor Bout's Family Fears For His Life, Condition Deteriorating, Wife Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The family of Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison term in the United States, fears for his life due to a sharp deterioration of his health due to the prison authorities’ failure to provide medical assistance, his wife Alla Bout told Sputnik on Monday.

"An unknown skin disease that began in Viktor in December last year with a small area of ​​skin near the eye has now spread to all healthy skin, and Victor can no longer sleep from severe itching and pain. This is almost torture," she said after speaking with her husband by phone on 2 June. Bout is now allowed only two phone calls a week. "Viktor complains about his health in the most extreme cases, when the problem is really serious. This is the third time in 14 years in prison".

Not once in six months did the administration of the Marion prison in Illinois call Bout a specialised doctor or any doctor at all, except for the prison paramedic, Alla Bout said.

"The paramedic gave Viktor a shampoo. The closest thing he prescribed to her husband was a sulfide-based ointment, which only caused severe allergies", the his wife said.

News conference on Viktor Bout's return to Russia

© RIA Novosti . Alexey Malgavko

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"It seems that my husband was infected with something on purpose, and they deliberately do not provide qualified medical assistance to drive him insane with pain. Victor’s American lawyer believes that by not helping my husband, the US authorities are putting pressure on Russia to get the convict in Russia for espionage of the American citizen Paul Whelan," Alla Bout said.

Alla Bout wrote a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the sharp deterioration in her husband's health in the US prison.

"Our diplomats both in Moscow and in America are constantly trying to help us, and every time something related to Viktor’s health happened, we addressed them, and they wrote and called the prison, the US Bureau of Prisons, other agencies. In previous cases, it helped. Now the embassy's requests and demands to provide Viktor with qualified medical care are simply ignored," she told the agency.