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When President Joe Biden ordered Viktor Bout released in exchange for basketball star Brittney Griner, he came with the conditions that the notorious arms dealer must not profit from his crimes with movies or books, according to the order commuting his sentence. .
However, legal experts warned on Friday that it may be unenforceable beyond the reach of US courts.
Mark Zaid, a Washington, D.C., national security attorney, said deals banning book or movie deals have become common in such cases, but they come with First Amendment concerns.
“More practically, given the circumstances, it will be practically unenforceable against Bout, since he will be outside the United States and the jurisdiction of our courts,” he told DailyMail.com.
“Theoretically, if you used a US publisher or the funds were transferred through a US bank, the government could try to block or seize those assets, but they would have to know about them in advance.”
Notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout was released Thursday after President Joe Biden signed an order commuting his 25-year sentence. He was traded for Brittney Griner in the United Arab Emirates.
Griner touched down on US soil on Friday morning, a day after he was handed over to US officials at Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates.
Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of conspiring to kill US citizens, among other crimes, flew in the opposite direction.
His release was made possible by a clemency order signed by Biden a week earlier and posted on the Justice Department website on Friday.
It prohibits Bout from returning to the US and requires him not to violate any US laws.
‘Said Viktor Bout will not accept or receive any financial benefit, directly or indirectly, in any way or amount, from any book, film or other publication or production, in any form or medium, on the circumstances surrounding the present offence. or switching,’ he says.
You cannot reclaim the seized funds or bring any legal claim against the US.
Biden signed the order on December 2, another step in the deal to release basketball star Griner.
The executive grant of clemency comes with conditions, including that Bout never set foot in the US again and that he not profit from his crimes with movies or books.
‘If at any time, said Viktor Bout violates one or more of the above conditions, as determined by me in my sole discretion (or by a future President in his sole discretion), this commutation may be rescinded in its entirety. and all terms of the sentence originally imposed reinstated.’
The document is dated December 5 and offers another detail on the deal timeline.
And he says that the deal only becomes valid if Bout signs the terms.
Bout was nicknamed the ‘merchant of death’ by a British foreign minister for his role in supplying weapons to conflicts around the world.
He made millions of dollars from clients that reportedly included Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi, the Taliban and even al Qaeda.
At 18, Bout was drafted into the Soviet Army (above, left) and spent two years in western Ukraine. He later studied at the Moscow Military Institute of Foreign Languages, which experts say was a “breeding ground” for Soviet spies.
The shadowy Tajikistan businessman and alleged Soviet spy known as the “merchant of death” wreaked untold havoc and misery around the world, including in Afghanistan and Africa, where his weapons were allegedly used to kill US and British troops. .
But his career as an arms dealer ended in 2008 when he was caught in a US raid in Bangkok, Thailand.
He made a deal with two men he believed to be commanders of the Colombian rebel group FARC for 100 surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 AK-47 rifles, five tons of explosives, plus ammunition and more.
They were informants for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
Two years later he was extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Moscow had long pushed for his release, and lawmakers described Bout’s detention at the time as politically motivated.
He was long thought to have close ties to Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.