U.S. court sentences Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to 25 years

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U.S. court sentences Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to 25 years

2012-04-06 08:01:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- A federal court in New York on Thursday sentenced Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said. He arrived in the United States in November 2010 after being extradited from Thailand, where he had been imprisoned since 2008.

Bout, dubbed as the "Merchant of Death", had been charged by U.S. prosecutors for conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles and over 20,000 AK-47s to Colombian militant group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), which the U.S. has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Bout, who is also a former Soviet air force officer, had repeatedly denied the charges and claimed he was on a business trip to sell planes. During the sentencing on Thursday, Bout stated that he did not intend to kill anyone or to sell any weapons.

The Russian arms dealer was extradited from Thailand to the United States in November 2010 after a long episode in which both the United States and Russia fought for his extradition. Bout had been imprisoned since March 2008 when he was arrested during a joint U.S.-Thai operation at a Bangkok hotel.

"Viktor Bout has been international arms trafficking enemy number one for many years, arming some of the most violent conflicts around the globe," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said. "He was finally brought to justice in an American court for agreeing to provide a staggering number of military grade weapons to an avowed terrorist organization committed to killing Americans."

"Today's sentence is a fitting coda for this career arms trafficker of the most dangerous order," Bharara added.

Bout, who is accused of trafficking arms to warlords around the world since the 1990s, had been facing up to life in prison for four terrorism charges in the United States, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to kill U.S. officers or employees, conspiracy to acquire an anti-aircraft missile and conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist group.

In addition to his 25-year prison term, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin sentenced Bout to five years of supervised release and ordered him to forfeit $15 million and pay a $400 special assessment fee.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-04-06

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