MOSCOW, January 13 (RAPSI) – U.S. officials agreed to loosen prison restrictions on Victor Bout, a Russian national who is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring to kill Americans, Sputnik reported on Wednesday, citing Bout’s lawyer Alexei Tarasov.

Bout was prohibited from making phone calls for 90 days in October for brewing tea that, according to prison authorities, contained alcohol. He was also banned from making purchases in the prison shop excluding essential items.

Bout was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008 and taken to the United States. In November 2011, he was convicted 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.

Bout has consistently denied the charges. Russia attempted to have him extradited from the US under the 1983 Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, but without success.

In June 2015, Bout filed a petition to have his case reviewed in light of newly discovered evidence. In October, a U.S. court denied petition to review the case against Bout.