US prosecutors have asked a federal judge to sentence convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to life in prison to deter others who might broker weapons for militant groups, according to a court filing on Friday. Bout, a 45-year-old former Soviet air force officer who was the subject of the book "Merchant of Death," was convicted in November on charges he agreed to sell arms to agents posing as Colombian militants intent on attacking US soldiers.
He faces a minimum 25-year sentence. US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin is due to sentence him on April 5 in Manhattan. "Although Bout has often described himself as nothing more than a businessman, he was a businessman of the most dangerous order," federal prosecutors said in a filing with the court requesting the harshest sentence possible.
They said the life sentence was needed to deter other non-state actors from brokering arms sales with suspected militant groups. Bout was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a sting operation by US agents posing as arms buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC and considered by the United States to be a terrorist group. He was extradited to the United States in 2010 to face trial in New York.
Throughout his three-week trial, Bout maintained he was set-up by the US government. In court papers earlier this week one of Bout's lawyers said Bout was an innocent victim of "particularly odious governmental conduct" by the United States, and should be cleared of all charges.
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