Bout extradition stuck on the runway
By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - American officials hoping to extradite Viktor Bout on Wednesday from
Thailand were unable to fly the suspected Russian international arms dealer to
New York because the United States added fresh allegations against him that
must be heard or dismissed in a Thai court.
A sleek white twin-engine jet from the US reportedly waited in vain on the
tarmac at Bangkok's Don Muang air force base on Wednesday only to be told that
Bout would not be handed over without jumping through some additional legal
hoops.
"We are not sending Viktor Bout back today. There are still several legal steps
to go through," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva
said on Wednesday. "Before Bout's extradition can take place, the second case
needs to be dropped by the court," Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi
said the same day.
The problem could still be quickly sorted out by US officials and a Bangkok
judge, allowing Bout to immediately be flown to New York. Or his closely
watched case could meander through Thailand's court system, resulting in a
delay or cancelation of his extradition which eventually permits him to walk
free.
The surprising development prompted a glimmer of hope among those defending
Bout because the extradition ruling said he must be sent to New York within 90
days or else be released.
The US attempt to extradite Bout "has descended close to farce, with Thai
agencies squabbling about how to proceed," reported London's Financial Times on
Wednesday.
American prosecutors created the snafu in February when they added financial
crimes - including money laundering and wire fraud - to a US list of reasons
why Bout should be extradited to New York to stand trial.
Those seemingly tighter charges were added in August 2009 because a lower
Bangkok court rejected New York's extradition request, which was based on a
sting operation led by undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
agents who bugged Bout in a Bangkok hotel and then arrested him in March 2008.
Bout and the agents reportedly discussed a deal involving unmanned drones,
rocket-propelled grenades, surface-to-air missiles and other weapons and
ammunition. The March 2008 sting, however, was deemed insufficient grounds to
extradite the Russian because, as a lower court judge ruled, no weapons or
money were produced in Bangkok.
The court ruled it was not a crime for foreigners to simply discuss illegal
activity in Thailand if they did not commit any actual crime. A Grand Jury's
"Count One" in the United States of America vs Viktor Bout case, filed
in New York's Southern District court, is titled: "Conspiracy to Kill United
States Nationals."
The DEA said it convinced Bout to sell weapons to Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, which could be used to kill US citizens in South
America, but the Thai lower court judge also said FARC was not considered a
"terrorist" group by the Thai government.
After the US added the financial crimes to their allegations against Bout, an
appeals court agreed on August 20 to extradite him, but warned that the alleged
financial crimes must now be heard by a separate court in Bangkok or formally
withdrawn - which meant he could not be sent to New York on Wednesday as
planned.
The new US indictment reportedly said New York prosecutors wanted to seize
Bout's alleged accounts at Wachovia, the International Bank of Commerce,
Deutsche Bank, and the Israel Discount Bank of New York.
Bout allegedly hid his name behind a front company, Samar Airlines, and tried
to buy two Boeing aircraft while a US ban was in force against any American
company or bank doing business with him.
Nicknamed the "Lord of War" and "Merchant of Death," the former Soviet air
force officer and linguist is purportedly one of the world's biggest private
weapons dealers. Weapons sold or delivered by Bout allegedly boosted rebel wars
in Africa, the Middle East and South America, with customers including
Liberia's Charles Taylor, Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, Afghanistan's Taliban
and others.
"Governments - particularly the US, British and French - and the United Nations
used his aircraft long after it was known who he was, and what types of
business he was engaged in," said Douglas Farah, who has written extensively on
Bout's deals.
In a separate twist, a parliamentarian in Thai Prime Minister Abhisit's ruling
Democrat Party, Sirichok Sopha, said on Wednesday he visited Bout in prison in
April, but Sirichok denied opposition politicians' allegations that he was
trying to get the Russian to somehow frame former prime minister Thaksin
Shinawatra.
"Let me explain about my involvement with Victor Bout, his lawyer has confirmed
I met with Victor. This is true, but my meeting was not about faulting or
framing Thaksin," Sirichok said.
The parliamentarian and close aide to the prime minister said he instead wanted
to ask Bout if he knew anything about an airplane which landed in Bangkok on
December 12, 2009, with more than 30 tons of weapons onboard, purportedly being
smuggled from North Korea to Europe or the Middle East.
The plane's cargo was seized by Thailand, but the five-man crew - mostly from
Belarus and Kazakhstan - were eventually released with no independent
confirmation about who financed the smuggling operation, who sent the Ilyushin
Il-76 cargo plane from Pyongyang, or where the weapons were ultimately
destined.
"Thailand’s efforts in counter-proliferation have also directly contributed to
regional peace, and were on full-display last year when Thai police interdicted
a substantial shipment of arms from North Korea," US Under Secretary for
Political Affairs William Burns said during a visit to Bangkok on July 16.
Perhaps coincidentally, relations between Bangkok and Moscow recently suffered
because of Thailand's most wanted criminal, fugitive former premier Thaksin,
though that spat was never publicly linked to Bout's appeal against
extradition.
In April, Thailand's Foreign Minister harshly criticized Russia for briefly
hosting Thaksin, who Bangkok wants sent home to serve a two-year prison
sentence for corruption.
"Everyone is washing their hands, but he [Thaksin] is a bloody terrorist,"
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said in April.
"There is this act of interference by third countries - how can the Russians
allow him there for two days or the Germans before that?"
Despite that frost, Bout and his lawyer said they would plead with Thailand's
Foreign Ministry, and also its monarchy, to ignore the extradition order and
set him free - which observers predicted would not be likely.
"Viktor Bout allegedly made a career of arming bloody conflicts and supporting
rogue regimes across multiple continents, even using the US banking system to
secretly finance a fleet of aircraft," US Attorney Preet Bharara said in
February.
"The United Nations and the United States have long-standing sanctions against
Bout that stem from, among other things, his support of the most violent and
destabilizing conflicts in recent African history," Bharara had said earlier.
A United Nations Security Council sanctions committee on Liberia said Bout had
supported Liberia's former president Charles Taylor to destabilize neighboring
Sierra Leone and steal its so-called "blood diamonds".
Bout's aliases include Boris, Victor But, Viktor Budd, Viktor Butt, Viktor
Bulakin and Vadim Markovich Aminov, according to DEA Special Agent Robert F
Zachariasiewicz, who signed the original 2008 charges presented to the court in
New York.
Evidence presented in Bangkok included wiretapped telephone and e-mail messages
between a US-paid DEA "confidential source" and Andrew Smulian, who was
allegedly Bout's partner before being arrested in America.
One e-mail message, allegedly from Bout to the agent, ended: "Best Regards
Friend of Andrew," apparently referring to Mr Smulian.
The DEA also displayed what it called "a map of South America that Bout
reportedly used in discussions about the locations of American radar stations",
which might monitor his cargo planes during deliveries to the FARC guerrillas.
The DEA also showed what they described as "notes handwritten by Bout during
the meeting regarding the details of the weapons deal" in Bangkok, allegedly
listing anti-aircraft guns, AK-47 assault rifles, an unmanned aerial vehicle,
10 million rounds of ammunition for sniper rifles and machine guns, plus rocket
launchers and grenade launcher.
The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York provided the
documents to the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists (FAS),
which was concerned about where the weapons might be located and how they could
be seized, especially a purported missile.
"It appears that missile on offer was the AT-4 Spigot, a wire-guided Russian
missile system that has a maximum range of 2,000-2,500 meters and can penetrate
up to 400-460mm of armor, depending on the type of missile used," FAS said in
October.
FAS said it was also concerned about locating "100 shoulder-fired,
surface-to-air missiles," which could shoot down military and commercial
planes.
It was unclear if Bout actually had personal access to any weapons allegedly
discussed in the Bangkok hotel room.
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California. He has reported news from Asia since 1978 and is co-author of the
non-fiction book of investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big Honey!
Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. His website is
www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com
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