Court refuses to drop new Bout charges
Published: 4/10/2010 at 04:35 PM
Online news: Breakingnews

The Criminal Court on Monday ruled against dropping new charges against Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The decision is expected to delay Bout's extradition to the US.

On Aug 20, the Apprals Court ordered his extradition, reversing the lower court's decision from a year earlier. The extradition could not go ahead because the US had already filed a second set of charges -- money laundering and wire fraud - against him.

The new charges had to be formally dropped before Bout could be extradited to the US.

Public prosecutors then filed a request with the Criminal Court, asking it to drop the extra charges at Washington's request.

The Criminal Court today rejected the prosecution request.

BANGKOK POST