|
 U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin on Monday said Bout, 48, did
not meet the high legal standard of showing that his November 2011
jury conviction should be thrown out.
Jurors convicted Bout of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers through
his agreement to sell arms to informants posing as members of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. government
had deemed a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiring to
acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles.
Bout had been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2008 on weapons
trafficking charges following a global sting operation.
 In seeking a new trial, Bout claimed he could not have been involved
in a conspiracy with former business associate Andrew Smulian, who
testified against him at trial, because Smulian was a government
agent throughout the investigation.
Bout also said other newly discovered evidence contradicted
Smulian's trial testimony, and undermined the indictment.
Scheindlin, however, said Bout's evidence could have been discovered
before trial, would not have undermined the jury's finding that he
and Smulian were co-conspirators, or would not have affected the
trial's outcome.
"Bout fails, as a matter of law," to meet the standards for a new
trial based on newly discovered evidence, which is granted "only in
extraordinary circumstances," the judge wrote.
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Alexey Tarasov, a lawyer for Bout, had no immediate comment.
In Sept. 2013, the federal appeals court in Manhattan also refused
to overturn Bout's conviction, which he claimed followed a
"vindictive" prosecution and his improper extradition from Thailand.
Bout is in a medium-security prison in Marion, Illinois, and not
eligible for release until Jan. 20, 2030. He was the subject of a
2007 book, "Merchant of Death."
The case is U.S. v. Bout, U.S. District Court, Southern District of
New York, No. 08-cr-00365.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Christian
Plumb)
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