KEY POINTS:
A tug of war is developing over who gets to try a suspected Russian arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death", as Thai and US authorities both said yesterday they could charge him with terrorism offences.
The possibility has arisen that others also may seek custody of Viktor Bout, especially in Africa, where his suspected flouting of UN arms embargoes allegedly fuelled grisly wars in Sierra Leone, Uganda, Congo and Liberia.
Bout, 41, was arrested on Thursday at a hotel in the Thai capital, Bangkok, where according to US officials, he had gone to finalise a deal to sell and transport weapons, including portable surface-to-air missiles, to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
But the multimillion dollar deal he thought he had with the Colombian rebels was really the culmination of an elaborate four-month sting operation concocted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, and his customers turned out to be undercover agents, US officials said.
The US considers the cocaine-trafficking leftist rebels, who have been fighting Colombia's government for more than 40 years, a terrorist group. Bout and associate Andrew Smulian, who is still at large, face US charges of "conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation".
Handcuffed and expressionless, the burly Russian was paraded before journalists at a Thai police news conference but refused to answer questions.
Bout would face 10 years' imprisonment on the Thai charges and 15 years in the US. The timing of any extradition still has to be worked out with Thai authorities.
Regarded as one of the world's most wanted arms traffickers, Bout's alleged list of customers since the early 1990s includes African dictators and warlords, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides of the civil war in Angola.
Authorities said they would have a good case against Bout for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity and war crimes in Sierra Leone, based on him having made arms shipments on behalf of Charles Taylor and for the brutal Revolutionary United Front. They allege the weapons were paid for with diamonds dug by slave labourers.
A UN travel ban imposed on Bout said he supported Taylor's regime in efforts to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds, which became known as "blood diamonds" for the warring they inspired.
Bout's business, centred on a fleet of transport aircraft owned and operated by several closely held companies, also reportedly involved him in supplying warring parties in Afghanistan before the 2001 fall of the Taleban.
Bout is believed to have used a fleet of planes and contacts from his days in the Soviet Air Force to buy weapons in formerly communist Eastern Europe and deliver them to rebel groups around the world.
He is generally believed to have been a model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War.
