Viktor Bout extradition a step closer
Suspected arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the Merchant of Death, moves a step closer to being extradited to the US after a prolonged trial, writes Asia Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.
A Thai court has dismissed charges of money-laundering and wire fraud against suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, bringing him a step closer to extradition to the United States to face terrorism charges.
The legal wrangling is the latest twist in a two-year diplomatic tussle between Washington and Moscow over the 43-year-old, who is accused of trafficking weapons since the 1990s to dictators and conflict zones in Africa, South America and the Middle East.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said Bout is an innocent businessman facing a politically motivated extradition that could undermine strengthening US-Russian ties and undo the White House’s efforts to “reset” relations between the Cold War foes. Bout is believed to have inspired the Hollywood movie Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage.
Legs shackled, Bout turned to his lawyer after the verdict and asked him to appeal. He hugged his wife before about 30 police commandoes escorted him from Bangkok Criminal Court.
Asia Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who interviewed Bout in his Thai jail cell last year, said that after a two year tussle the suspected arms dealer appeared to have lost his invincibility.
He will need all the talents and guile he gained in his travels to take on the American legal system.
“It’s been 31 months since Viktor Bout was arrested in a complex American-led sting operation in a Bangkok hotel, apparently trying to sell missiles to men who later turned out not to be Colombian rebels but American agents,” Nick Paton Walsh writes.
“For over two years, the legal tussle has dragged on, so opaque at times that a verdict or announcement was often followed in court with a strange huddle of lawyers, relatives, translators and journalists all conferring as to what the judge really meant and what, if anything, could be concluded.
“Yesterday, we got a new judge. Today, we got a final verdict.
“The scenes were emotional. Alla, his wife, and he hugged after the verdict. She said they had told each other of their love and promised to fight on. He told me that he has no money left and can’t afford American lawyers. She has accused the Americans of aiming for a show trial.
“Whatever trial he gets in America will definitely be theatrical – the sheer epic nature of the charges will guarantee that.
“Mr Bout is accused of fuelling some of the worst atrocities of the 1990s and beyond. There is almost no-one he’s accused of not working for. He says it’s nonsense. Yet when you talk to him you realise his incredible experience of the world – from Central African Republic to the wiles of the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan – suggests a life more exotic than the simple textile trader he sometimes makes himself out to be.
“He has lost a huge amount of weight in the Thai jail, and clearly also his sense of invincibility.
“He will need all the talents and guile he gained in his travels to take on the American legal system, and it’s hard to not to think that he might today have met his match.”