A court in Thailand has recently ordered the extradition of suspected arms dealer Viktor Bout to the United States. Bout was an officer in the Soviet Union’s armed forces, and became a businessman after the collapse of the Soviet Union, using surplus Soviet craft to run an international air freight business. It is alleged that he was not too fussy about the cargo he accepted, so that his business became a major supplier of weapons to fuel civil wars in Africa.
It has been speculated that Bout could be an interesting witness at the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor at the International Criminal Court. Taylor is accused of dealing in blood diamonds from Sierra Leone to fund the rebel forces there which committed acts of unspeakable barbarity on the people of Sierra Leone. Bout is alleged to have supplied arms to Taylor in exchange for blood diamonds.
Liberia is only one of numerous conflict zones in which Bout is alleged to have supplied arms. He is alleged to have supplied illegal arms to the UNITA rebel group in Angola, provided transportation services for al Qaeda in Afghanistan, delivered weapons to various armed groups in the Second Congo War, and provided transportation services to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Now Bout, who is often called the Merchant of Death, seems likely to face trial in the US for providing support to terrorist organisations.