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`Merchant of Death' Viktor Bout denied bail by Thai court

A Thai court denied bail yesterday to a purported Russian arms dealer who is wanted by the US, saying it feared the suspect might try to flee the country, his lawyer said.

Viktor Bout, 41, was arrested in Thailand last week at a Bangkok luxury hotel after a US-led sting operation. He was charged with conspiracy for trying to smuggle missiles and rocket launchers to a rebel group in Colombia that is a US-designated terrorist organization.

Bout, also known as "The Merchant of Death," is being held in a Thai prison while authorities investigate whether he used the country as a base to negotiate the deal with terrorists. The Russian denies any wrongdoing and applied for bail yesterday.

"The court has denied bail," Bout's lawyer, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, said. "The suspect is being detained on severe charges for alleged engagement with international terrorists and the court said if it grants bail the suspect might escape."

Suspects can be held for up to 84 days in Thailand without being formally charged.

If convicted, Bout could face 10 years in prison on the Thai charge, and 15 years in the US.

An alleged associate of Bout's, Andrew Smulian, appeared on Monday in a New York City courtroom to face similar charges, prosecutors in New York said. Smulian, who was arrested on Friday in New York, did not enter a plea and was held without bail.

To capture Bout, undercover agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration posed as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia seeking to purchase millions of dollars in weapons.

The US and UN have long identified Bout as a weapons smuggler whose alleged list of customers included former dictator Charles Taylor of Liberia, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, now the Congo, and both sides of the civil war in Angola.

Bout also reportedly supplied arms to warring parties in Afghanistan before the 2001 fall of the Taliban's Islamic regime.

A former Soviet air force officer, Bout allegedly built his contacts in the post-Soviet arms industry into a business dealing arms to combatants in conflicts around the world. He is generally believed to have been a model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War.
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