Russia: Convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout will not be repatriated

A request that the convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout be returned to his native Russia to serve the rest of a 25-year prison term has been turned down by the United States.

Bout, 54, was sentenced in April after a Manhattan court convicted him of agreeing to sell arms to people he thought were militants intent on attacking US soldiers in Colombia. He was the subject of a book called Merchant of Death and the inspiration for a film, Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage. The Russian government has argued that he was convicted on unreliable evidence.