'Merchant of Death' Viktor Bout sentenced to 25 years
06.04.2012 10:40
BBC: Arms dealer Viktor Bout, dubbed the "merchant of death", has been sentenced to 25 years in jail by a US judge.
During the sentencing, the ex-Soviet officer shouted "it's a lie" as the prosecution said he had agreed to sell weapons to kill Americans.
The 45-year-old was found guilty in November of attempting to sell heavy arms to a Colombian rebel group.
He was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 after a sting operation in which US informants posed as Colombian rebels.
Bout - who was the inspiration for the arms smuggler in the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War - remained in custody in Thailand for two years, before being extradited to the US to face trial.
'God knows truth'
Bout, a vegetarian who speaks six languages, hugged his lawyer and waved to his wife as he was led from the court on Thursday.
Earlier, he told the judge through a Russian interpreter that he "never intended to kill anyone" and said, "God knows this truth."
Sentencing had been delayed twice as his lawyer asked for more time to prepare and accused prosecutors of "outrageous government conduct" for allegedly entrapping the Russian.
Judge Shira Scheindlin said that 25 years was appropriate sentence for his crimes given the sting set up by US officials. She also ordered him to forfeit $15m (£9.5m).
"But for the approach made through this determined sting operation, there is no reason to believe Bout would ever have committed the charged crimes," she said.
Albert Dayan, Bout's lawyer, said they would appeal his conviction.
Bout agreed to sell 100 advanced portable surface-to-air missiles and approximately 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles during a meeting at a Bangkok hotel, according to prosecutors.
That meeting was not with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), but with US Drug Enforcement Administration officials posing as representatives of the guerrilla group.
'Enemy number one'
The conviction relates only to the attempted arms sale in Thailand, but US authorities say Bout has sold weapons to dictators and guerrilla forces in Africa, South America and the Middle East.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement: "Viktor Bout has been international arms trafficking enemy number one for many years, arming some of the most violent conflicts around the globe.
"He was finally brought to justice in an American court."
It is said that Bout began channelling weapons to war-torn parts of Africa during the 1990s.
"Although Bout has often described himself as nothing more than a businessman, he was a businessman of the most dangerous order," prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing memo.
The US Treasury department banned any trade with Bout in 2004, citing an "unproven allegation" that he made $50m from selling arms to the Taliban.
During the trial, his defence argued Bout was just trying to sell two old cargo aircraft for $5m.
"Viktor was baiting them along with the promise of arms, hoping just to sell his planes," lawyer Albert Dayan told the court.
Profile: Viktor Bout
So notorious are the exploits of former Soviet air force officer Viktor Bout that they have inspired a Hollywood film and garnered him an impressively fearsome nickname - the merchant of death.
Bout was extradited from Thailand to the US in 2010, after a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency two years earlier.
Agents from the DEA posed as potential buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc. That group is classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
Bout claimed he was simply an entrepreneur with a legitimate international transport business, wrongly accused of trying to arm South American rebels - the victim of US political machinations.
But a jury in New York didn't believe his story.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2012 after being found guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans and US officials, delivering anti-aircraft missiles, and aiding a terrorist organisation.
His three-week trial heard that Bout had been told the weapons would be used to kill US pilots working with Colombian officials.
Prosecutors said he replied: "We have the same enemy."
Bout - a Russian national - began his career in air transport in the early 1990s, after the fall of the USSR.
According to a 2007 book - Merchant of Death, by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun - Bout built up his business using military planes left on the airfields of the collapsing Soviet empire in the early 1990s.
Diamonds, guns and militants
The sturdy Antonovs and Ilyushins were up for sale along with their crews, and were perfect for delivering goods to bumpy wartime airstrips around the world.
Bout, 45, who was born in Soviet-ruled Tajikistan, is said to have begun channelling weapons through a series of front companies to war-torn parts of Africa.
The UN named him as an associate of former Liberian President Charles Taylor - who is awaiting judgment on war crimes charges.
"[Bout is a] businessman, dealer and transporter of weapons and minerals [who] supported former President Taylor's regime in [an] effort to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds," UN documents state.
Media reports in the Middle East claim he was a gun-runner for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
He is also alleged to have armed both sides in Angola's civil war and supplied weapons to warlords and governments from the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.
On the run
In an interview with the UK's Channel 4 News in 2009, he flatly denied ever dealing with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
But he did admit to flying arms to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, saying they were used by commanders fighting against the Taliban.
He also claimed to have helped the French government transport goods to Rwanda after the genocide, and to have transported UN peacekeepers.
But law enforcement agencies have pursued him throughout the 2000s.
He was forced to leave his home in Belgium in 2002 when the authorities there issued an arrest warrant.
It is thought he travelled under several aliases, moving through countries such as the United Arab Emirates and South Africa before resurfacing in Russia in 2003.
In the same year, British Foreign Office minister Peter Hain coined the nickname merchant of death.
After reading a 2003 report about him, Mr Hain said: "Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms... from East Europe, principally Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola.
"The UN has exposed Bout as the centre of a spider's web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers and other operatives, sustaining the wars."
'Tango lessons'
The US made moves against Bout throughout the 2000s, freezing his assets in 2006, but there was no law he could be prosecuted under in the US.
nstead, US agents bided their time until 2008 when they posed as buyers for Colombia's Farc rebels and gained an introduction to Bout through one of his former associates.
Shortly after the undercover officers discussed arms shipments to Farc with Bout, Thai authorities arrested him and lengthy legal proceedings began to bring him to the US.
Bout said the US case against him was politically motivated; his wife has been quoted as saying his only connection with Colombia was "tango lessons".
The Russian authorities have supported him throughout, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowing to fight to secure his return to Russia and labelling the Thai court's decision "unjust and political".
The 2005 film Lord of War, loosely based on the arms dealer's life, has the anti-hero escaping justice at the end.
But such a fairytale ending has eluded Bout.