Guns? Not me says Viktor
Bout By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - The US Drug Enforcement Agency's
attempt to extradite a Russian, Viktor Bout, to
America for alleged terrorism is not supported by
evidence and is based on "blah blah blah",
according to his lawyer.
"My client never
has been to the United States and never committed
a single action in the territory of the United
States," Bout's Russian lawyer, Dasgupta Yan, said
at a news conference on Monday.
"We don't
consider him doing something wrong in relation to
the United States of America," Yan said,
challenging US jurisdiction to extradite the
Russian from Southeast Asia. "He does not consider
himself to be guilty of any legal action, neither in
Thailand nor anywhere else in
the world."
Bout was jailed on March 6 in
Bangkok by Thai police, who were aided by
American, Romanian, Dutch and Danish security
forces, the DEA said. The heavyset man was
described by some weapons investigators as the
2005 Lord of War film's character Yuri
Orlov, portrayed by American actor Nicholas Cage.
"I think the story expressed in this
movie, and my client's story, are as different as
how Nicholas Cage appears [compared] to the
appearance of my client," Yan said referring to
the heavy-set, muscular Bout and the lighter, more
elegant physique of Cage.
"I think they
are very different, you know?"
Bout
operated an aircraft "maintenance service" company
in Russia, which did business in countries
suffering "certain problems," which caused
authorities to be "suspicions because of that,"
Yan said.
Bout, was arrested "on terrorism
charges in Bangkok" for conspiring to sell
"millions of dollars worth of weapons, including
surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) and armor
piercing rocket launchers" to "a foreign terrorist
organization" in Colombia, the Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) announced.
The DEA described
a sting operation in which Bout and his alleged
co-defendant, Andrew Smulian, conspired to sell
weapons to guerrillas in the Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia, commonly known as
FARC.
The two men did not realize they
were actually dealing with a disguised DEA agent
who they met in a Bangkok hotel, according to US
officials.
Smulian later appeared in New
York where he is currently jailed awaiting trial.
The DEA's allegations against Bout have
not been proven, Yan said. "In accordance to my
opinion, today, to what I see, it looks more like,
you know, a little bit of 'blah blah blah', just
like that," the Russian-based lawyer said. "It has
to be supported with the proper evidence ... there
are allegations, that's it. It is very unclear,"
Yan said.
Bout, 41, was born in Dushanbe,
the capital of Tajikistan, when it was part of the
Soviet Union, according to his passport. "Today,
he is running a firm in Russia. This firm is
specialized in the provision of maintenance
service to aircraft," Yan said.
Asked
later in an interview if he was concerned that the
US might declare Bout a "non-combatant" and
rendition him to the US naval base in Cuba's
Guantanamo Bay without normal extradition
procedures, Yan replied: "We have to think about
it. I don't think there is a great danger right at
the moment, because he is already under the Thai
jurisdiction, and he has to be treated in
accordance with the Thai law."
If he is
set free from Thai custody, however, "there is a
possibility" that Bout could be forced to Gitmo,
Yan said. "I think this is not a correct approach
to my client, and I don't think this approach will
take place," the lawyer said before adding, "We
are preparing for the possibilities.
"There are international organizations,
including the United Nations, and international
organizations for human rights where the United
States is a participant, which comes from
international treaties - the European court of
human rights, for example. So there are a lot of
possibilities we are thinking to explore if
required," he said. "I think we will try to make
noise everywhere" to stop any forced rendition.
Thai law allows Bout to be detained for up
to 84 days without trial, he said.
American officials "tried to talk to him,
and they even tried a type of interrogating of him
at the moment of detention, which we don't think
was proper", the lawyer said in the interview.
"The type of interrogation was that they
tried to interview him a little bit when he was
detained. They tried to raise questions, without
[legal] protocol," Yan said.
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.geocities.com/asia_correspondent.
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