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Momodou
Denmark
11828 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Aug 2010 : 13:20:33
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 Viktor Bout, who got the nickname "the merchant of Death", is thought to have supplied war lords and rebels in several of the world's conflict-ridden hotspots with weapons.
His alleged customers are said to include Liberia's former war lord Charls Taylor among others ...
Thailand to extradite Viktor Bout to US
Thai appeals court rules to extradite alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to US
By: KINAN SUCHAOVANICH
Associated Press
08/20/10 6:20 AM EDT
BANGKOK — A Thai appeals court on Friday ordered the extradition of suspected Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout to the United States, angering Moscow but paving the way to put the man dubbed the "Merchant of Death" on trial.
Shackled in leg irons, Bout vowed to prove his innocence in an American courtroom.
"We will face the trial in the United States and win it," Bout told reporters in Russian after the verdict, according to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency.
The court ordered Bout's extradition within three months, overturning a lower court's ruling in August 2009 that rejected a U.S. request that he face trial there. No further judicial appeals are possible in Thailand.
The ruling is a victory for the Obama administration, which summoned the Thai ambassador in Washington this week so U.S. officials could "emphasize that this is of the highest priority to the United States," according to State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the court decision "unlawful and political." Without mentioning the United States, he said the ruling was influenced by "very strong outside pressure."
Experts say Bout has been useful for Russia's intelligence apparatus, and Moscow does not want him going on trial in the United States.
Bout, a 43-year-old former Soviet air force officer, is reputed to be one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. He has allegedly supplied weapons that fueled civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa, with clients including Liberia's Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides of the civil war in Angola.
The head of a lucrative air transport empire, Bout has long evaded U.N. and U.S. sanctions aimed at blocking his financial activities and restricting his travel. He has denied any involvement in illicit activities and claims he ran a legitimate business.
The 2005 Nicolas Cage film, "Lord of War," is widely believed to be modeled after Bout's life.
Bout's nickname arose from his 1990s-era notoriety for running a fleet of aging Soviet-era cargo planes to conflict-ridden hotspots in Africa. A high-ranking minister at Britain's Foreign Office first used it in 2000 to single out Bout for his alleged arms role in Africa.
Dressed in an orange prison uniform, Bout stood after the verdict was announced. Tears welled in his eyes as he hugged his wife and daughter, who wept. He was led out of the courtroom and back to a Bangkok prison where court officials said he would remain until the extradition is processed.
"This is the most unfair decision possible," his wife, Alla Bout, told reporters, speaking in Russian through a translator. "It is known the world over that this is a political case."
Bout's arrest by Thai authorities in March 2008 landed Bout in prison for the first time and set off a legal tug-of-war between the U.S. and Russia.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Moscow-based military analyst, called Bout a "prize catch" for Washington and an embarrassment for Moscow.
"The activities he was performing involved a lot of Russian government officials. The information he has, many parties want to keep under wraps," Felgenhauer said.
The U.S. could secure key military intelligence not only on Russia but on other former Soviet states where Bout operated, he said, adding that if Bout were to accept a plea bargain, "He could really start to sing."
Bout's arrest at a Bangkok luxury hotel was part of an elaborate sting in which U.S. agents posed as arms buyers for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which Washington classifies as a terrorist organization.
Bout was subsequently indicted in the U.S. on four terrorism-related charges that include conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to FARC, including more than 700 surface-to-air missiles, thousands of guns, high-tech helicopters and airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers and missiles.
The U.S. indictment also charged Bout with conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to kill U.S. officers or employees, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
The Russian faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
In August 2009, the Bangkok Criminal Court rejected a U.S. extradition request. It said that Thailand considers FARC a political movement and not a terrorist group, and that extradition under a Thai-U.S. treaty could not be granted for a political offense.
But the appeals court disagreed, saying Friday that under Thai law the charges against Bout were considered criminal, not political.
"Given that the defendant was charged with conspiring to kill American citizens and American officers, conspiring to source ... anti-aircraft missiles, and acquire weapons for a terrorist group like FARC — these are criminal offenses not just in the country where he is a plaintiff but also the country receiving the charges," the ruling said.
"The court has decided that these charges have no political characteristic as the lower court ruled, therefore the appeals court disagrees with the verdict," the ruling said. "The court has decided to overturn (the lower court verdict). Now Viktor Bout would have be extradited to the U.S. within three months according to the extradition act."
Bout's lawyer, Lak Nittiwattanawichan, said he would try to keep fighting.
"I am going to submit a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cabinet. I will also submit a request to the king and queen," he said.
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Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok and David Nowak in Moscow contributed to this report
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/breaking/thai-appeals-court-rule-to-extradite-alleged-arms-dealer-viktor-bout-to-us-101136944.html#ixzz0x90g0jQG
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11828 Posts |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 20 Aug 2010 : 13:53:42
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| I know nothing about this man but from what is posted here it is a very fair decision made by the appeal court,if after all the blocking tactics that apparently are going to be employed by the lawyers he is extradited,the lawyers in US will have a field day with even more money spent in "fees" by the defence and prosecution.A final outcome MAYBE years away,if this man is extradited I think that he will have a very hard time applying for bail before the outcome is decided.Innocent or guilty. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Karamba
United Kingdom
3820 Posts |
Posted - 21 Aug 2010 : 01:30:41
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Yahya Jammeh of Gambia is known to have big connections with Bout. Through that link, Yahya Jammeh is part of Charles Taylor's ring of blood diamond dealings and lot more:
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There is also now interest in the activities of Richard T. Hines, the head of the powerful Republican lobbying firm RTH Consulting, Inc. Hines, a South Carolina native and a protege of the late GOP dirty trickmeister Lee Atwater, was one of the architects of the dirty tricks campaign by Bush against John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary. A confederate of Abramoff in the 1980s Reagan administration's covert support network for the Nicaraguan contras, Angolan UNITA guerrillas, and Afghan mujaheddin, Hines is active in various Confederacy resurgence organizations, many of which have clear racist agendas. However, that has not prevented Hines from becoming the lobbyist for Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, a military officer who overthrew Gambia's democratically-elected President Sir Dawda K. Jawara in a 1994 military coup supported by the United States Navy.
Hines inherited the lobbying contract for Gambia from the eclectic Washington lobbyist Edward von Kloberg III, an individual who represented Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Liberia's Samuel K. Doe, Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania, Congolese leader Laurent Kabila, the exiled King Kigeli V of Rwanda, and Saddam Hussein. Last May, von Kloberg took a swan dive off of a castle in Rome, allegedly committing suicide after a spat with a gay partner.
The connections between Hines and Gambia are important since the small narrow West African country is also a major base of operations for notorious Russian international arms smuggler Viktor Bout. The Gambia is the headquarters for one of many of Bout's front companies -- companies that are used to smuggle everything from weapons to diamonds and mercenaries to international relief supplies. In fact, Bout was the character on whom fictional arms smuggler Yuri Orlov, played by Nicolas Cage in the movie Lord of War, was largely based.
Bout's connections with the Christian Right do not end with Gambia. Bout was Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's primary arms and diamond smuggler. Bout and his associates were given Liberian diplomatic passports and, with Taylor's blessing and protection, they registered a number of their front companies in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Taylor, who is now in exile in Nigeria, was a business partner with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson. Robertson's organization mentored both Ralph Reed and Richard Hines. According to British and Israeli intelligence sources, Taylor also enabled Al Qaeda to launder blood diamonds for cash through Liberia. Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone were where Israeli mobsters engaged in business with Israeli gangsters who operated under the full protection of the Israeli Likud government."
http://india.indymedia.org/en/2005/12/211207.shtml |
Karamba |
Edited by - Karamba on 21 Aug 2010 01:47:21 |
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Momodou
Denmark
11828 Posts |
Posted - 05 Oct 2010 : 17:09:57
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Thai court drops case against Bout
 Viktor Bout, alleged Russian arms dealer, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted [AFP]
Bangkok dismisses charges against alleged Russian arms smuggler, clearing legal hurdle to his extradition to the US.
Last Modified: 05 Oct 2010 11:09 GMT
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A Thai court has dismissed money-laundering and fraud charges against Viktor Bout, the alleged Russian arms smuggler, removing the last legal obstacle for his extradition to the US where he is wanted on "terrorism" charges.
Bout, nick named "Merchant of Death", was to be extradited in August to face trial for conspiring to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), the country's largest rebel group, after being arrested in a US-led sting operation in March 2008.
But the extradition was postponed while the extra charges brought by the US prosecutors were heard.
The Bangkok Criminal Court ruled on Tuesday to drop the money-laundering and fraud charges due to lack of evidence and other technicalities.
The extra charges were lodged by the US against Bout in February to ensure he was not set free.
The former Soviet air officer is wanted in the US on suspicion of trafficking arms to dictators and conflict zones around the world since the 1990s.
Theodore Karasik, a security analyst with the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Affairs in Dubai, told Al Jazeera that Bout knows "plenty about Russian military arms transfers throughout the world from the 1990s up until the time of his arrest".
"Some state secrets may be leaked to the Americans and it may hurt US-Russian relations in the future. To have the future of US-Russian relations being settled in this instance in Thailand is highly unusual and does put the Thais in a bit of a tight spot," he said.
'Political persecution'
Bout has repeatedly denied arms trafficking charges, saying that he ran a legitimate air cargo business and was in Bangkok to discuss selling planes when he was arrested.
The 43-year-old has argued that his life would be in danger if he was sent to the US because of a possible death sentence.
On Monday he said claims that he was one of the world's most prolific arms dealers were a "fantasy".
"I did nothing wrong. I am a victim of political persecution," he said after the court ruling.
Bout, who was inspiration for Nicholas Cage's character in the 2005 movie Lord of War, has been held in a Thai maximum-security prison since his arrest in March 2008.
Lobbying by Moscow for his release has fuelled speculation he was receiving protection from Russian authorities who had made no apparent attempt over the years to interfere in his alleged operations.
Source: Al Jazeera English |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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toubab1020
12314 Posts |
Posted - 05 Oct 2010 : 17:27:19
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"The 43-year-old has argued that his life would be in danger if he was sent to the US because of a possible death sentence."
That is a sequence that normally follows such a sentence |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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| Bantaba in Cyberspace |
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