The US government finished presenting evidence on Friday in the weapons dealing case against a former Soviet officer known as the “Merchant of Death,” and defense lawyers called no witnesses, setting the stage for closing arguments next week.
Prosecutors finished with two witnesses who testified that they saw Viktor Bout in the 1990s watching planes being loaded with weapons and soldiers in East Africa for a trip to the Congo.
The testimony seemed meant to buttress the government’s portrayal of Bout as a powerful international weapons dealer who eagerly stepped into a 2008 sting operation arranged by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In the sting, the focus of the trial in Manhattan federal court, two DEA operatives posed as anti-US rebels who wanted to buy weapons from Bout for use in Colombia.
One of those operatives, Ricardo Jardenero, testified on Friday that he was introduced to Bout at a March 2008 meeting in a hotel in Bangkok, Thailand as The Commandant, a commanding officer of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He testified that Bout drew a picture of a surface-to-air missile to demonstrate a weapon that might be effective against US pilots.
After the meeting, Bout was arrested and held in Thai prisons until he was extradited to the US for trial last year over the objections of Russia.
Jardenero, the government’s final witness, came immediately after two witnesses testified that they saw Bout overseeing weapons shipments in Africa in 1998.
James Roberts, who lives in Africa, testified that he was working for Bout as a pilot in the fall of 1998 when he saw weapons, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades being loaded onto planes by soldiers in military uniforms. On one occasion, he said, he saw Bout on the runway near the aircraft. Another time, he said, he watched 200 to 300 soldiers board a plane destined for the Congo.
Charles Mukoto, of East Africa, testified that he saw Bout on many occasions in East Africa “supervising” the movement of cargo that included high-powered assault rifles, small tanks and mortars. He said he also saw soldiers boarding planes and Bout meeting with senior military officials.
As defense lawyers objected to efforts by prosecutors to elicit more testimony about the soldiers who boarded the planes, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin stopped Assistant US Attorney Brendan McGuire from getting an answer to the question: “What, if anything, were the soldiers carrying?”
“Obviously they weren’t carrying pens,” defense attorney Albert Dayan said.
The lawyer has maintained that Bout was a legitimate businessman who did not know what was contained in the shipments he brokered before the UN in 2004 severely restricted where he could travel, forcing a shutdown of his transport business.
After calling no witnesses, the defense asked the judge to throw out the charges on the grounds that the government had failed to prove its case, a common request defense lawyers make at trials prior to closing arguments. The judge declined.
Bout, 44, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted of conspiracy charges, he could face life in prison.
The Merchant of Death name was given to Bout by a high-ranking minister at Britain’s Foreign Office, who drew attention to his 1990s notoriety for running a fleet of aging Soviet-era cargo planes to conflict-ridden hotspots in Africa.
The nickname was included in the US government’s indictment of Bout, and US Attorney Preet Bharara referenced it when he announced Bout’s extradition last year, saying: “The so-called Merchant of Death is now a federal inmate.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in