March 8, 2009: Bangkok, Thailand. A Russian businessman dubbed the 'Merchant of Death' for allegedly arming dictators and warlords said on Friday there is no proof showing he's the world's biggest arms dealer and accused the US of pressuring Thailand to extradite him. Viktor Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, also complained of inhumane treatment at a Thai prison that he said was cramped, hot, uncivilised and 'worse than Guantanamo'.
The 41-year-old Bout has long been linked to some of Africa's most notorious conflicts, allegedly supplying arms to former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
He has been jailed in Thailand since his arrest in Bangkok a year ago and is accused of conspiring to arm Colombian rebels. Bout's extradition hearing started in June but it has been repeatedly postponed by a shifting cast of attorneys and defence witnesses who have failed to appear.
His hearing was again delayed on Friday because his wife complained she was sick and could not testify. The hearing will resume on Monday with the defence planning to call Bout to testify. Shackled at the ankles with his face pressed against the bars of a holding cell, Bout shouted to reporters ahead of Friday's hearing. 'If they say I am the biggest arms dealer - so, where is the proof?'
Bout said at Bangkok's Criminal Court, calling the accusations against him 'lies and rumours'. When asked by reporters if he felt politics were behind his arrest, Bout shouted, 'It's a theatre!' Dressed in an orange prison uniform, Bout also yelled at guards who tried to prevent him from speaking during a 10-minute exchange with reporters in French, English and Russian.
One of Bout's lawyers, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, told the court Bout was illegally detained and requested his immediate release. Judges said they would consider the motion. The United States is seeking the extradition of Bout, who was arrested March 6, 2008, at a Bangkok luxury hotel.
Agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration posed as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, looking to buy millions of dollars in weapons. Bout was charged with conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to Farc, which is a US-designated terrorist organisation.
He was later indicted in the US of four terrorism-related charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
A little about this skumbag
October 1996-Late 2001: Arms Dealer Aligns with Taliban and ISI
Russian arms merchant Victor Bout, who has been selling weapons to Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance since 1992, switches sides, and begins selling weapons to the Taliban and al-Qaeda instead.
The deal comes immediately after the Taliban captures Kabul in late October 1996 and gains the upper hand in Afghanistan’s civil war. In one trade in 1996, Bout’s company delivers at least 40 tons of Russian weapons to the Taliban, earning about $50 million.
Two intelligence agencies later confirm that Bout trades with the Taliban “on behalf of the Pakistan government.” In late 2000, several Ukrainians sell 150 to 200 T-55 and T-62 tanks to the Taliban in a deal conducted by the ISI, and Bout helps fly the tanks to Afghanistan.
Bout formerly worked for the Russian KGB, and now operates the world’s largest private weapons transport network. Based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bout operates freely there until well after 9/11.
The US becomes aware of Bout’s widespread illegal weapons trading in Africa in 1995, and of his ties to the Taliban in 1996, but they fail to take effective action against him for years. US pressure on the UAE in November 2000 to close down Bout’s operations there is ignored. Press reports calling him “the merchant of death” also fail to pressure the UAE.
After President Bush is elected, it appears the US gives up trying to get Bout, until after 9/11.
Bout moves to Russia in 2002. He is seemingly protected from prosecution by the Russian government, which in early 2002 will claim, “There are no grounds for believing that this Russian citizen has committed illegal acts.” The Guardian suggests that Bout may have worked with the CIA when he traded with the Northern Alliance, and this fact may be hampering current international efforts to catch him
1998: CIA Suspects Persian Gulf Royals and Arms Dealer Victor Bout Are Flying Heroin Out of Afghanistan
In 1998, the CIA becomes interested in the links between arms dealer Victor Bout, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, and some US counternarcotics officials are particularly intrigued by a pattern they see between the flight patterns of Bout’s airplanes to and from Afghanistan and the hunting vacations of some Persian Gulf royals.
Many of the Persian Gulf elite are known to regularly go bird hunting in Afghanistan, sometimes meeting Taliban ruler Mullah Omar and/or Osama bin Laden during their hunting trips US analysts notice that there is a surge of Bout-controlled flights to Afghanistan in February and March of each year, the same time many royal elite fly to Afghanistan on their private jets in time for the migration of thousands of houbara bustards through Afghanistan. Then, in early autumn, there is another surge of flights by both Bout’s planes and the royal jets when the bustards migrate through the country again.Officials at the CIA’s counternarcotics center suspect some of the royals are using the hunting flights as cover to export heroin. The Bout flights increase the suspicion, since he is a known drug trafficker as well as an arms dealer. Scheuer will later comment, “They were very interested on the counternarcotics side about the patterns between Bout’s flights and the bustard-hunting season.”
British intelligence is interested in the same thing, and at one point they approach United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials for permission to sneak a team of agents aboard one of Bout’s flights to search for Afghan heroin. However, they are unable to get permission, and the CIA also does not act on these suspicions.
Viktor Bout complained of inhumane treatment at a Thai prison that he said was cramped,hot, uncivilised and 'worse than Guantanamo'
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