THAILAND STARTING HEARINGS IN CASE OF EXTRADITION TO THE UNITED STATES OF RUSSIAN CITIZEN VIKTOR BOUT
ITAR-TASS
April 9 2008
Russia
BANGKOK, April 9 (Itar-Tass) – Thailand is starting hearings in
the case of extradition to the United States of Russian citizen
Viktor Bout who is suspected of arms smuggling, Lieut-Gen Phongphan
Chayaphan, chief of the Thai police’s Crime Suppression Division,
stated on Wednesday.
Hearings in this case will last about two months, the official
specified.
"We are working on the legal procedures to extradite him to face
trial in the United States as requested by America, so police and the
attorney general decided to drop the related charges against him here,"
Chayaphan noted.
Bout was detained in Thailand on March 6 under a warrant issued by
a Thai court at the request of the United States. He is suspected of
violating the UN embargo on the supply of weapons to zones of regional
conflicts in Africa. The UN authorities in absentia brought charges
against Bout of criminal conspiracy with the aim of supplying weapons –
"ground-to-air" shoulder-fired air defence weapons – to militants of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Bout was earlier transferred to a most guarded Thailand’s prison –
Klong Prem. He is under a 24-hour watch. Director General of Thailand
Department of Corrections Wanchai Roujanavong, earlier said that
aside from the video surveillance, other prisoners informers speaking
English have the oversight of Bout. Suspects can be held up to 84
days in Thailand without being formally charged.
Bout’s lawyer Yan Dasgupta said earlier that "US representatives were
present during the detention of Viktor Bout in Thailand." According
to the lawyer, "They exerted pressure on him trying to persuade him to
fly to America," he added. "All this was made without drawing up of a
protocol, which is violation of the law," Dasgupta said stressing that
Bout "refused to fly to the United States and resisted" the pressure.
After that Thailand’s police denied that they were exerting pressure
on Russian citizen Viktor Bout right after detention trying to make
him fly to the United States. "It is impossible for the US to take
him out of the country right after the arrest, because it is contrary
to Thai laws," stated spokesman for the criminal police department of
Thailand Akarawut Limrat, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported in March.
"I had three meetings with my defendant. Viktor Bout pleads non guilty
and says his arrest is illegal," Dasgupta said earlier.
Thailand has not brought official charges against Bout, but
investigators suspect him of assisting terrorists.
"Lawyers will do their utmost to change a measure of restraint and
release Viktor Bout on bail. We take all necessary procedural actions
and coordinate the work of local lawyers," according to Dasgupta.
"Some sources report that the US filed a request to the Thai Foreign
Ministry on Viktor Bout’s extradition, but these facts have not been
proved yet and no official procedure has been launched," the lawyer
said. "However, there is a bilateral agreement on extradition between
Bangkok and Washington."
"There are too many questions in this case. We hope that local laws
will be complied with in Thailand and the trial will be just, if
takes place," he said.
According to Thai lawyer Lak Nitiwatvichan who is engaged in Bout’s
case he knows not a single case of violation of law by Bout and he
hopes for impartiality of the Thai justice.
"He (Viktor Bout) has done nothing wrong. Thailand is a sovereign
country, so since he was arrested in Thailand, he is willing to be
prosecuted under Thai law," the lawyer said earlier.
Commenting on the situation with the possible extradition of Bout to
the United States, Dasgupta noted that this "is impossible without
completion of certain procedures." "However, according to Thai laws,
it is possible to simultaneously conduct the investigation and consider
the extradition procedure.
Thailand’s court earlier refused to release Viktor Bout on 500,000
bahts (15,500 US dollars) bail. The court’s decision was prompted by
apprehensions that the suspect may leave the country and disappear.
The Bangkok Post English-language daily quoted Bangkok police chief
Lieutenant General Adisorn Nonsi as saying that Bout may face up
to 10 years in prison or may be fined from 4,000 to 200,000 bahts
(130-6,400 US dollars).
According to US secret services, Bout in the 1990s used his fleet
of cargo aircraft, built back in the Soviet era, to smuggle combat
vehicles and armaments to countries in Central and Western Africa.
In Moscow, Russia’s national bureau of Interpol said earlier it has
received no messages concerning the arrest of former Soviet citizen
Viktor Bout in Thailand.
"Russia has never put him on a wanted list. Consequently, we have
received no messages about his arrest," the Interpol office said.
At the same time Interpol officials said the man had been on the
international wanted list at Belgium’s request since 2002 on the
suspicion of arms smuggling, a source recalled.
Bout’s British associate, Andrew Smulian, was accused of similar
charges on March 10 after he was arrested in New York.
US and UN officials say that Bout smuggled thousands upon thousands of
semi-automatic rifles, grenade launchers, other weapons and ammunition
to Armenia for Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan
and African conflicts in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Liberia,
Libya, Republic of the Congo, Rowville, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South
Africa, Sudan, Swaziland and Uganda.
Most weapons were smuggled into Africa came via Bulgaria, which Bout
visited frequently between 1995 and 2000. From July 1997 to September
1998 Bout reportedly smuggled an estimated $14 million of weapons into
Africa. In 2000 Bout also delivered helicopters, anti-aircraft guns
and armoured vehicles to Liberia. Bout also established Air Cess in
Miami, Florida, in 1997. The company operated until September 2001,
when it was dissolved.
Bout has essentially done business with anyone irrespective of
ideology, often contracted on both sides of a war. As well as some
of the more controversial customers such as the Taliban or Charles G.
Taylor, the UN and the US have also paid for his services.
His nicknames, namely the "Embargo Buster" and "Merchant of Death,"
were coined by the former British Foreign Office minister, Peter
Hain. Upon reading the 2003 UN report on Bout’s activities, Hain
said: "Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal
conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms, including heavy
military equipment, from east Europe, principally Bulgaria, Moldova,
and Ukraine, to Liberia and Angola. The UN has exposed Bout as the
centre of a spider’s web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers,
and other operatives, sustaining the wars."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress