Trial over Russian accused of arms smuggling to begin in NY.

NEW YORK, October 11 (Itar-Tass) - Trial of Russian businessman Viktor
Bout, whom the U.S. authorities accuse of arms contraband, begins at 10:00
hours EDST /14:00 hours GMT/ Tuesday at the New York federal court.
The reason, for which Bout, a former Soviet military interpreter, is
standing trial in New York, is that the charges against him include a
conspiracy for the purpose of killing U.S. citizens.
U.S. attorneys claim Bout agreed to supply weaponry to an
international terrorist organization in spite of being aware of its
purposes, which included the killing of U.S. citizens and official
representatives in Colombia.
The trial will open with the procedure of selecting the jurymen. Of
the eighty candidates, a total of twelve main and six standby jurymen will
be selected.
The jury will be expected to decide on the former Russian officer's
plight. The questions the candidates will be asked in the process of
selection are supposed to clear out, among other things, whether or not
the potential jurymen have any prejudices against Russia or its citizens.
Defending Viktor Bout in the courtroom are lawyers Albert Dayan and
Kenneth Kaplan. U.S. media quoted Dayan as saying Monday Bout "never had
any intention of transferring arms to anyone".
"We believe that most of the reputation he has developed is imposed
rather than actual," he said in an interview last week.
Virtually on the eve of the trial, U.S. District Judge Shira
Scheindlin took a decision "to require jurors to sign a pledge not to
research Bout on the Internet or other media."
This is what lawyers have been pressing for. They called the judge's
attention more than once to the fact that intense public attention to the
Bout case will make it extremely difficult, if at all possible, to ensure
the fairness of trial
The problem is that Western mass media and the pop culture have spared
no effort to portrait Bout as a pariah of the international community and
an arms peddlar who makes his fortunes on shedding people's blood. The
Lord of War movie starring Nicholas Cage was released in 2005. Viktor
Bout was taken as the prototype of Cage's hero - "an arms dealer /who/
confronts the morality of his work as he is being chased by an Interpol
agent."
In 2007, U.S. authors Stephen Braun and Douglas Farah published a book
about Bout entitled 'Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man
Who Makes War Possible'.
Bout was arrested March 6, 2008, in Bangkok at a U.S. warrant as a
result of a 'sting operation', in which he allegedly agreed to sell the
weapons worth millions of U.S. dollars to agents of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency acting as envoys of the Colombian extremist grouping
FARC.
A Thai court exonerated him of guilt in 2009 but the Appeals Court in
Bangkok overruled the case in August 2010 and sanctioned Bout's
extradition to the U.S.
Russian officials have said on a number of occasions that the
extradition was effectuated with encroachments on the law, as there were
no appropriate court sanctions for this.
If the jurors pass a guilty verdict, Bout may face a life sentence. He
does not recognize his guilt on any charges.
His lawyers insist that he never sold arms and his entire business
focused on air transportation of cargos.
Viktor's wife Alla said earlier the U.S. pressed for her husband's
extradition to create a myth about an important victory against terrorism
before the eyes of the American people and the world community.
She believes that Viktor has become a victim of unscrupulous activity
of a number of UN experts, as well as U.S. and British politicians and
media people, who fanned the suspicions of UN officials to the extent of
demonizing her husband.
The trial is expected to last about three weeks.