Russian arms dealer jailed for 25 years

Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer caught in an undercover sting by U.S. agents posing as Colombian guerrillas seeking weapons, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday by a U.S. judge in New York.Bout, who was the subject of a book titled “Merchant of Death,” asserted his innocence during the sentencing, telling the judge through a Russian interpreter, “I never intended to kill anyone. I never intended to sell arms to anyone. God knows this truth.”He then pointed at federal agents sitting in the front row. “These people know this truth,” Bout said. “They will live with this truth….God forgive you. You will answer to him, not to me.”Arrested in Bangkok in 2008 after a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting operation and later extradited to New York to face trial, Bout was convicted by a Manhattan federal court jury last fall. The three-week trial centred on charges he agreed to sell arms to people he thought were Colombian militants intent on attacking American soldiers.Bout’s capture came less than a year after the publication of “Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible,” written by investigative journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun. The 2007 book chronicled Bout’s life as an arms dealer and how he evaded capture for years.He was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals and officers of the United States and one count each of conspiracy to sell anti-aircraft missiles and providing material support to a terrorist organization.His attorneys have said they would appeal the trial conviction, pursuing their tooth and nail fight with the government in a case they characterize as a persecution by the United States of an innocent man.