The attorney for imprisoned Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout got a chilly reception from a federal appeals court Monday as he tried to argue that newly discovered evidence of government misconduct warrants a new trial for his client.
Defending Bout, dubbed “The Merchant of Death” by authorities, attorney Alexey Tarasov tried to persuade the three-judge panel that there could be no conspiracy to sell black market weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, because Bout’s alleged co-conspirator was employed by the government.
