MOSCOW, April 22 (RAPSI) – The wife of Russian businessman Viktor Bout, convicted in the US, has amended her defamation suit against Ren TV, Khamovnichesky District Court spokesperson Darya Lyakh told RAPSI on Monday.

The hearing is scheduled for May 13.

The network aired a documentary entitled “The Mafia of the Soviet Union” in November 2012 which referred to her husband as a “Lord of War” and a Russian mob boss.
Alla Bout’s claim asks the court to rule that the reference to her husband in the documentary is libel and to order the network to retract it. She also seeks moral damages in the amount of $1 million.

Ms. Bout initially filed her lawsuit on April 9, but the court sent it back for review.

Bout was convicted in November 2011 of conspiracy to murder US nationals, including military officers and employees, and of selling millions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including hundreds of portable surface-to-air missiles and over 20,000 AK-47s, to the Colombian rebel group FARC.

He has consistently denied the charges against him. Russia attempted to have Bout extradited from the United States in line with the 1983 Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, but without success. Bout's story gained popular notoriety through the success of the Hollywood blockbuster Lord of War, a story that is said to be loosely based on Bout's life.