Bout, whose life was the inspiration for the Nicolas Cage movie “Lord of War,” faced up to life in prison. He received the minimum sentence he faced; U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin also ordered a $15 million forfeiture.
He was found guilty in November on all four counts he faced during a three-week trial. He was convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, conspiracy to kill U.S. employees, conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group.
“Viktor Bout has been international arms trafficking enemy number one for many years, arming some of the most violent conflicts around the globe,” said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement. “Today’s sentence is a fitting coda for this career arms trafficker of the most dangerous order.”
Bout, who was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2004, was captured in 2008 in Thailand after an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operation lured him there for a meeting with people posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. It took more than two years for the U.S. to extradite Bout from Thailand to face charges, and Russian officials—along with his wife—strongly opposed the action.
Following the November 2011 conviction, Bout was placed in solitary confinement as he awaited sentencing, but Scheindlin later ordered him in the general prison population after a request from Bout’s lawyers. In a last gambit, the lawyers filed a motion last week requesting Scheindlin not to sentence him.
“Your Honor, I am not guilty,” Bout said during a hearing in Manhattan federal court Thursday“I never intended to kill anyone. I never intended to sell arms to anyone. God knows this truth.”
Wearing tan prison garb with his dark hair slicked back, he pointed to the audience in the courtroom, saying “this truth is known by these people here.”
The sentencing guidelines for the crime were too harsh, and that there was no evidence he’d previously tried to support a terrorist group. It was merely a business opportunity, she said.
“He did not seek out such an opportunity because of a long-held antipathy to Americans or American policies,” the judge said.
However, arms-control and anti-corruption activists were not fully satisfied with the length of the sentence, calling for greater action on the issue.
“While I’m gratified [he] is now out of harm’s way, 25 years behind bars will not do justice to the enormity of blood the godfather of the illegal weapons trade has on his hands,” said Kathi Lynn Austin, executive director of the Conflict Awareness Project who was a United Nations arms investigator for 20 years.
She said the sentence “sets a globally significant precedent” in putting arms dealers out of business, but the only way to prevent another arms dealer from reaching Bout’s stature would be a strong international arms-trade treaty “that once and for all regulates the arms middlemen that currently are allowed to operate without constraint.”
Stefanie Ostfeld, a policy adviser at Global Witness, focused on Bout’s financial maneuvers, such as the use of shell companies in the U.S. and around the world, that allowed him to continue his business for so long.
“He exploited the same loophole used by terrorists, corrupt dictators, drug traffickers and tax evaders to legally hide their identities to access the U.S. financial system,” Ostfeld said in a statement.
Source: WSJ
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