Russia says it believes the case against convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout has been “fabricated by U.S. special services.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made the comment on October 27 after a U.S. judge said Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States, does not deserve a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence.
Bout, often referred to as Russia's "Lord of War" or "Merchant of Death," was arrested in Thailand in March 2008.
He was convicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers by selling arms to informants posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization, and conspiring to acquire and export antiaircraft missiles.