A Thai court delayed reputed Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout’s extradition hearing to the US for a second time after his new defense attorney failed to show up for the high-profile case yesterday.
Bout, dubbed “The Merchant of Death,” has been indicted in the US on four terrorism charges. Though he denies any involvement in illicit activities, he is regarded as one of the world’s most-wanted arms traffickers and was purportedly the model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War.
Barefoot and shackled, Bout was led into Bangkok’s Criminal Court for a hearing that ended abruptly because his defense lawyer, whose name was not immediately available, was not present.
PHOTO: EPA
The lawyer “says he has another case. The court deems that it is necessary to postpone,” Judge Jitakorn Patanasiri told the court.
The judge initially set the new date as Aug. 22 but then corrected himself to say Sept. 22.
Prosecutor Vipon Kititasnaisornchai agreed to the postponement after the court showed him a formal request filed by a representative of the defense lawyer.
“The newly appointed lawyer has another case scheduled at the same time,” Vipon told the court, adding he “preferred not to postpone the case but the circumstance was beyond [the defense lawyer’s] capacity.”
On June 9, the first hearing was delayed for because Bout’s other attorney, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, said he had heart problems.
Lak, who is now serving as a legal adviser in the case, said Bout plans to fight the extradition.
“He’s innocent. There are no grounds for his extradition,” the lawyer said.
The 41-year-old Russian faces charges of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to kill US officers or employees, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile, a US indictment made public on May 6 stated. He faces a life sentence.
US prosecutors say Bout was offering a deadly arsenal of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including more than 700 surface-to-air missiles, thousands of guns, high-tech helicopters, and airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers and missiles. The US classifies FARC as a terrorist organization.
The charges were based in part on a covertly recorded meeting in Thailand on March 6.
Bout was arrested after a sting operation in which undercover US agents posed as Colombian rebels.
Bout, who has been accused of breaking several UN arms embargoes, has a long list of alleged clients including African dictators and warlords such as former Liberian president Charles Taylor and both sides of the civil war in Angola.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
‘TRUMP’S LONG GAME’: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that while fraud was a serious issue, the US president was politicizing it to defund programs for Minnesotans US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somalian origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship, while also announcing a freeze of childcare funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centers. “Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. About 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017, the Immigrant Legal Resource
RSS