NEW-YORK, February 8 - RAPSI. Albert Dayan, counsel for Russian businessman Viktor Bout, applied to court for improving his client's incarceration conditions.

A copy of the application has been made available to RIA Novosti.

According to the document submitted to Shira Scheindlin, Bout spends "days and nights" in his solitary cell and is denied "basic, God-given rights, like fresh air and sun."

Dayan told that the defendant is taken from his cell handcuffed and is deprived of the right to walk in prison yard. Even during rare meetings with his family he can only talk through a plastic barrier.

Dayan called Bout's New York custody conditions "barbaric" compared to the Thai prison where Bout had to spend about two years.

Bout has been kept in a solitary cell since November 2010. He has applied to prison and penitentiary department authorities for changing his prison treatment to standard conditions, but the application was dismissed.

Judge Scheindlin has scheduled Wednesday for hearing parties applications, although earlier this date was set for passing the sentence.

Bout has challenged the guilty verdict arguing that the accusations leveled against him were not supported by case materials.

Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and further extradited to the United States. The United States have charged Bout with conspiring to kill Americans and U.S. officials, illegal surface-to-air missile trafficking, and supporting terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian guerilla organization FARC.

The sentencing date will probably be determined at the Wednesday hearing if the court turns down the defense's arguments. Bout faces from 25 years to life in prison.
He has pleaded not guilty.