A court in Thailand surprised close ally the United States Tuesday by rejecting a request for the extradition of Viktor Bout, the Russian alleged arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death”.
Bout, who is said to have inspired the Hollywood film “Lord of War” starring Nicolas Cage, has been fighting extradition since his March 2008 arrest in Bangkok on charges of peddling weapons around the world, including to Al-Qaeda.
Russia said it was “satisfied” by the court’s ruling (of course, Bout is an ex-KGB), but a senior US diplomat said his country was “disappointed and mystified” and hoped the Thai government would appeal against the decision.
“The Thai court has agreed to dismiss the case,” judge Jitakorn Patanasiri said.
The burly, moustachioed Bout flashed a victory sign after the decision. The court ruled that he should remain in detention for another 72 hours to give the attorney general chance to appeal.
Bout was arrested in a sting at a Bangkok hotel after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles to US agents posing as guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The Thai judge, however, said that the court in Bangkok “does not have the authority to punish actions done by foreigners against other foreigners in another country.”
He said that FARC had been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and the United States but not by Thailand, meaning that as far as Thailand was concerned it was a political movement. (Oh, great, thanks, Thailand!!!).
He has also allegedly sold weapons to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Is Al-Qaeda also a “political movement” for Thailand?
For from the ABC.es’ link pointed above:
Russian businessman Viktor Bout, whose extradition to USA has been rejected today by a Bangkok’s court, is an ex-member of Russian KGB and is considered as one of the world’s leading weapons’ dealer till his arrest in Thailand, on March 2008.
This ex-Russian spy, accused of selling weapons to the bloodiest conflicts in the planet and to groups such as FARC or Al-Qaeda, will go free in 72 hours’ time if the US authorities don’t appeal the sentence.
In that time, this man, who speaks Russian, Uzbek, English, French and Portugues, and who had five passports with different names when he was arrested, will be able to live a “normal life”, as he recently said he would be doing if he was freed again.
So the man whose life was elevated to the level of criminal legend thanks to the film “Lord of War” will imitate his role in the film played by Nicholas Cage and could escape again judicial prosecution.
Bad News… Very BAD NEWS. If there is no action made against people who profit from terrorism, there would be no end to this plague. And this guy profits from terrorism.
Russian position is understandable (he could say a thing or two about Russian role in present-day black weapons market) but lacks any kind of foresight: if his personal activities collide with Russian political objectives, he will also send weapons to Russian enemies (i.e. Chechenyan terrorists for example). There are a lot of rogue states where he can find shelter, that’s for sure. But as Russia is now in a permanent confrontation with US, specially over Kosovo and Georgia, they think now that setting a weapons dealer loose is going to be good for them.
I don’t know what people specially critical of Russian-Putinian Neo-Soviet regime would say about this, but clearly I don’t think these are good news at all.
technorati tags: Viktor_Bout, Russia, FARC, Thailand, Al-Qaeda, terrorism, violence, Lord_of_War, Nicholas_Cage, weapons_dealer, terrorism_funding
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