Bout to win his case in US court as truth is on his side, lawyer says.

NEW YORK, August 4 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian citizen Viktor Bout being on
trial in the United States for alleged arms trafficking and his lawyers
are awaiting trial with optimism despite the rejection of his pleas for
dropping the charges against him.
Nor the lawyer are worried by the U.S. prosecutors' intention to bring
in more evidence against Bout, using documents showing his illegal
dealings in Africa. These include text messages retrieved from Bout's
computer and sent through Skype in 2008, which the prosecutors claim
contain proof that the Russian businessman intended to supply a Kortent
antitank system to Libya.
The prosecutors also submitted a petition last week, asking the court
to include in the case testimonies regarding alleged arms supplies by Bout
to areas of armed conflicts in Angola and Congo in 1997-1998.
However Bout's lawyers say that all these pieces of evidence exist
only in the imagination of U.S. prosecutors and have no doubt about their
defendant's innocence.
"It does not matter how the prosecution will build its tactics because
what Viktor Bout says is true," lawyer Albert Dayan said.
He said once again that his Russian defendant is waiting for the start
of hearings with eagerness in order to dismiss of the charges brought
against him.
"We are heading for the trial where it will become clear that Bout had
no intention to supply arms to anyone," Dayan said.
He believes that everyone will understand quite soon that Bout's
arrest was "a set-up well planned in advance".
Dayan said earlier that he planned to present two new Russian
witnesses in the case who could "punch a hole in the government's
evidence".
He declined to name the witnesses until Judge Shira Scheindlin agrees
to their participation in the hearings. According to Dayan, one of the
witnesses knows Bout and Andrew Smulyan who is involved in the same case.
Both have been charged by the U.S. authorities with an attempt to sell
arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia knowing all the way
that they would be used for killing American citizens.
On June 22, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet
Bharara sent to the Southern District Court in Manhattan a conclusion on
the appeals filed by the Russian businessman's defence lawyers, stating
that the appeals should be turned down for lack of grounds. The
prosecution claims that Bout allegedly agreed to supply weapons to an
international terrorist organisation, knowing that its purpose was to kill
U.S. citizens and officials in Colombia.
"The witness participated in a meeting between Bout and Smulyan in
Moscow in 2008," Dayan said.
On August 2, Scheindlin killed Bout's last hope for a quick case
closure by rejecting his lawyers' petitions in which they questioned the
legality of Bout's extradition to the U.S. in November 2010.
They also stated that the U.S. authorities had fabricated the charges
against Bout for political reasons.
On the first matter, Scheindlin announced in a 20-page ruling that
courts in the U.S. were not empowered to revisit decisions on extradition
made in other countries.
When rejecting the second petition, she said there was not enough
evidence that the charges were politically motivated.
Bout was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008 at a U.S. request and
extradited to the U.S. in November 2010. He has been charged with
masterminding the sale of a large shipment of arms.
Four charges have been brought against him: criminal conspiracy to
kill US nationals, conspiracy to kill officials in public service,
criminal conspiracy to purchase and sell antiaircraft missiles and
criminal conspiracy to supply weapons to terrorist groups. The Russian
citizen has pleaded not guilty on all the points. If convicted,
44-year-old Bout will face from 25 years in prison to life imprisonment.