Suspected arms dealer to face US justice

Major suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was extradited from Thailand to the US today on terrorism charges.

The move saw Washington win a tug of war with Moscow over whether to send him to stand trial or let him go home.

The Thai cabinet approved Bout’s extradition after a long legal battle, and police said the 43-year-old was put aboard a plane in Bangkok heading for the US at about 1.30pm local time (6.30am Irish time) guarded by eight US officials.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said his cabinet approved extradition after acknowledging an earlier appeals court decision that Bout could be legally extradited.

Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who is reputed to have been one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers, was arrested at a Bangkok luxury hotel in March 2008 as part of a sting led by US agents.

Bout has allegedly supplied weapons that fuelled civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa, with clients including Liberia’s Charles Taylor and Libya and both sides in Angola’s civil war.

The head of a lucrative air transport empire, Bout had long evaded UN and US sanctions aimed at blocking his financial activities and restricting his travel. He claims he ran a legitimate business and never sold weapons, and fought hard to avoid extradition.

“This is an unequivocally political decision, lobbied by the US government,” Bout’s wife Alla said in Bangkok.

“It has no legal basis whatsoever.”

Russia had made strong public statements against Bout’s extradition, and privately, both Moscow and Washington were reported to be exerting heavy pressure on Abhisit’s government.

Russia says Bout is an innocent businessman and wants him in Moscow. Experts say Bout knows details of Russia’s military and intelligence operations and that Moscow does not want him going on trial in the US.

The extradition came just a few days before a deadline that might have let him walk free. The same Thai court that last month gave the final go-ahead for his extradition also had declared that Bout had to be extradited before November 20, or be released.

A Thai court in August of 2009 originally rejected Washington’s request for Bout’s extradition on terrorism-related charges. After that ruling was reversed by an appeals court in August this year, the US moved to get him out quickly, sending a special plane to stand by.

However, just ahead of the appeals court ruling, the US forwarded new money-laundering and wire fraud charges to Thailand in an attempt to keep Bout detained if the court ordered his release. But the move backfired and caused a new delay, and only an early October court ruling cleared the final path to extradition.