MOSCOW. Oct 2 (Interfax) - The defense of Russian citizen Viktor Bout can file another appeal of the sentence and his extradition to Russia can be discussed only amid a relevant request of the convict to Russia and the United States, the Russian Justice Ministry press office said.
"According to the information received from the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ruling of the New York Court of Appeals on September 28 upholding the sentence to Bout does not rule out the possibility to further appeal of the verdict in the U.S. court instances," the press office said in a statement sent to Interfax on Tuesday in response to a relevant request.
Considering the extradition of Bout from the U.S. to Russia for him to serve the time further is possible only if Bout files a relevant request to applicable authorities of Russia and the U.S., the Justice Ministry said.
"In this case the Russian Justice Ministry will send to the U.S. a request for Bout's extradition to Russia in accordance with the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons of 1983," the statement said.
Russian law and the Convention do not stipulate certain timelines for considering the requests for the transfer of convicts, the Justice Ministry said.
"There are cases of transfer of citizens of both countries to serve time upon the cooperation of relevant authorities of Russia and the U.S.," the statement said.
Bout was convicted by a jury at a Manhattan court on November 2, 2011. He was accused of intending to smuggle arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a group listed in the United States as a terrorist organization, to be used against U.S. armed forces.
In April 2012 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the sentence and Bout's lawyers filed for appeal in January 2013.
A U.S. court of appeals upheld the verdict on Bout's case on Friday. The Russian businessman's lawyer Albert Dayan said that the court should overturn the guilty verdict because the investigation of Bout's case did not comply with legal standards.