VIKTOR BOUT'S RUSSIAN LAWYER SAYS CHICHAKLI REFUSED A PLEA AGREEMENT TWICE

Richard Chichakli

Alexei Binetsky, Viktor Bout's Russian attorney, in an interview in Russia, has declared that Richard Chichakli twice refused to accept a plea bargain, from the United States Attorney, in his pending criminal case. He claims that Chichakli stated that he wanted to exercise his right to a jury trial, though he does not disclose how he came by this information.

Binetsky says Chichakli was offered a plea agreement two different times:

(1) First, an agreement which would result in a Guidelines sentence of 38-42 months.

(2) Second, an offer of a sentence of approximately one-half of the original offer.

Richard Chichakli has long asserted that he was indicted by the United States as a form of revenge, for his support of Viktor Bout, after Bout's arrest in Thailand, which Chichakli alleges resulted in a delay in Bout's eventual extradition. That is why he has reportedly sought to bring many of the details of Bout's arrest to light in his own trial, but the level of objective proof required to sustain a defense of Prosecutorial Vindictiveness is rarely achieved.

We shall continue to follow the Chichakli trial, and to report back to our readers all developments, as they occur.