Federal judge Judge Shira Scheindlin in the Southern District of New York in Manhatten decided Wednesday that what Victor Bout said in in 2008 in Thailand cannot be used in her court because he talked under duress.
She wrote in her decision that Bout’s statements were “not voluntary” even though he had not been beaten or physically deprived. She wrote that two American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents who interrogated Bout in Thailand and testified in pretrial hearings were not fully credible.
Scheindlin said that contrary to their testimony, she believed they knew full well that the Thai police refused Bout access to a lawyer and to a Russian embassy representative. The judge agreed with the defense that the agents threatened Bout with “disease, hunger, heat and rape” in Thai jails in their attempts to get him to cooperate and waive extradition to the US.
Last week in another pre-trial hearing, Scheindlin ruled that prosecutors will be allowed to submit evidence showing that the UN and the US placed economic sanctions on 30 companies Bout was affiliated with because he was suspected of smuggling weapons to former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. In 2005, US companies were instructed not to contract Bout’s companies, and some of his assets were frozen.
Bout, 44, has pled guilty to all four charges against him: criminal conspiracy to kill US nationals, conspiracy to kill persons in the civil service, criminal conspiracy to purchase and sell antiaircraft missiles and criminal conspiracy to supply weapons to terrorist groups.
The suspected arms trafficker was arrested after an undercover DEA operation. He was extradited in November 2010 and his trial is to begin in October.
