Thailand rejects US pressure over 'Merchant of Death'

[CrazyExpat]

BANGKOK — A senior Thai prosecutor rejected pressure from Washington Thursday over its appeal for the extradition of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death".

Bangkok's appeals court is considering an appeal by the Thai government against the criminal court's ruling in August that Bout should not be sent to the United States to stand trial.

A US official said Wednesday that US President Barack Obama on his Asia trip next month will press Thailand to go ahead with the extradition.

"Every country's justice system is sovereign and no one can interfere or pressure the judges," Sirisak Tiyapan, executive director of international affairs at the Thai Attorney-General's Office said.

"This case is under deliberation by the Court of Appeal... To extradite or not is up to the court," he said, giving no details of when a verdict could be expected.

Bout's colourful life is said to have inspired the Hollywood film "Lord of Death" and he is accused of peddling weapons around the world, including to Al-Qaeda.

Kurt Campbell, the assistant US secretary of state for East Asia, said that US officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have raised the case in every meeting with Thailand.

"We are pressing it as hard as we possibly can," Campbell testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Obama heads next month on his first presidential visit to Asia. In Singapore, he will take part in an Asia-Pacific summit and meet leaders of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Thailand.

"I will certainly make sure that this issue is raised within the context of his trip to Southeast Asia," Campbell said.

Bout, a burly former Soviet airforce officer, was arrested in March 2008 at a five-star hotel in Bangkok where he was allegedly arranging to sell surface-to-air missiles to US agents posing as Colombian guerrillas.

A Bangkok court ruled that it did not have the authority to extradite Bout because the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia was not listed as a terrorist group in Thailand -- a decision praised by Moscow.

The nickname "Merchant of Death" was coined by a former British foreign office minister and also used for a 2007 book on Bout's alleged activities.

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[WannaGo]

So, meanwhile, charges against him have been dropped, so he's sitting in some luxury hotel in Bangkok?

The guy definitely is oily. He set up his own website, where he claims he's nothing but a guy trying to make a living who was framed by a disgruntled former associate:

Victor Bout is a Russian businessman who became one of the world’s famous on the basis of fictitious tales and stories which were generated from one source -- a corrupt United Nations contractor who was generously paid for the UN contracts he arranged with the help of others for Victor’s companies, and then became mad for vengeance when Victor refused to continue paying him. All you know about Victor Bout is traceable to Johan Peleman’s report, a report that was written as a novel and made Peleman an expert, a hero, and a very wealthy man.

Victor Bout is a dynamic, charismatic, spontaneous, well-dressed, well-spoken, and highly energetic person who can easily communicate in several languages including Russian, Portuguese, English, French, Arabic, among several others. He is a born salesman with undying love for aviation and eternal drive to succeed.

The Federation of American Scientists has gotten some of the documents related to the US case against him, including handwritten notes of the weapons and ammo he intended to supply.

The FAS blog makes a good point about why this case is important:

While the documents contain some important details and add texture to the unfolding drama in Bangkok, they shed little additional light on several key questions, including whether Bout and Smulian actually had access to the weapons that they allegedly promised to deliver to the FARC. This question is particularly important in regards to the 100 shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles, which, as explained in an earlier posting on the Strategic Security Blog, have been the focus of an international control campaign for nearly seven years because of the threat they pose to military and commercial aircraft. Confirmation that Bout had access to the missiles would suggest the need for renewed vigor in the global fight against shoulder-fired missile proliferation.