Thailand said yesterday that alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout could face fresh extradition proceedings after US prosecutors filed new charges against the so-called “Merchant of Death.”
Money laundering and fraud charges were announced in New York on Wednesday against the Russian, apparently amid fears that he could soon be released by a court in Thailand almost two years after his March 2008 arrest.
Bout is accused of peddling weapons to some of the world’s most violent warmongers, including Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, and his notoriety inspired the Hollywood film Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage.
PHOTO: AFP
He was seized in Bangkok while allegedly agreeing to supply missiles to Colombian rebels, but judges said last August that they could not extradite him because the Thai government had not listed the group as a terrorist outfit.
Thailand’s government has challenged that ruling, with a decision expected soon, but the country’s attorney general’s office said yesterday that the new cases had now changed the situation.
“The US has informed the court that new charges would be filed against Bout,” said Sirisak Tiyapan, head of international affairs at Thailand’s attorney general’s office.
“If the formal charges are filed [to Thailand] it would be treated as a different case, so he could be rearrested if the appeals court upholds the earlier verdict in his ongoing case,” Sirisak said.
The new charges target Bout and alleged co-conspirator Richard Ammar Chichakli for their alleged attempts to buy two aircraft from US-based companies in violation of economic sanctions.
Bout and Chichakli were charged with “money laundering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and six separate counts of wire fraud, in connection with these financial transactions,” the US attorney general’s office in New York said.
Chichakli is a US citizen and has assisted in managing Bout’s network of aircraft companies since at least the mid-1990s, the prosecutor’s office alleged.
Bout’s lawyer in Thailand, Lak Nitiwatvichan, said the latest fraud charges would not affect the current case concerning the missiles and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
“This has nothing to do with the current case,” Lak said. “The US has tried every possible way to get Bout extradited.”
Bout, a former Soviet Air Force officer, has continually protested his innocence, insisting he was the boss of a legitimate air cargo firm.
He has been held at a maximum-security prison outside Bangkok since his arrest.
Burly and with a signature bushy moustache, he allegedly used eight different aliases and a command of six languages to barter deals for planes and guns across the world.
He was arrested in a sting at a five-star Bangkok hotel after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles to US agents posing as Farc guerrillas.
Bout faces life in prison if sent to the US and convicted there on the earlier terrorism charges, including conspiracy to kill US officers or employees and conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile.
That US indictment accuses him of using a fleet of cargo planes to transport weapons and military equipment to some of the world’s most violent conflicts, in Africa, South America and the Middle East.
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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