(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-08 16:11

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai officials said Friday they might file terrorism charges against a reputed Russian arms dealer arrested at US behest, and a war crimes prosecutor expressed a desire to try the man dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for fueling African civil wars.

Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, dubbed 'The Merchat of Death,' is escorted from a hearing at police headquarters by Thai authorities Friday, March, 7, 2008, in Bangkok, Thailand. The United States is seeking extradition of Bout but he will remain in Thailand pending and investigation officials said Friday. [Agencies]

Viktor Bout, 41, was detained Thursday at a hotel in Bangkok, where American officials said he had come to finalize a deal to sell and transport portable surface-to-air missiles and other weapons to men he believed represented the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

But the multimillion-dollar deal he allegedly thought he had with Colombian rebels was really the culmination of an elaborate four-month sting operation concocted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

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 a US charge of "conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization."

Handcuffed and expressionless, the chubby Russian was paraded before journalists Friday at a Thai police news conference where he refused to answer questions. He has previously denied charges that he sells illicit arms.

The US is seeking Bout's extradition, but for now he will remain in Thailand, where officials said they were investigating if he used the country as a base to negotiate a weapons deal with terrorists and whether he should be charged here.

Thai authorities received court permission Saturday to continue to keep Bout in custody. Suspects may be held for up to 84 days without being formally charged for trial.

If convicted, Bout would face 10 years in prison on the potential Thai charge, and 15 years in the US.

The timing of any extradition still has to be "worked out" with Thai authorities, Thomas Pasquarello, the DEA's regional director, said at the news conference.

A high-ranking US government official with knowledge of Bout's history said the Russian did business in the past with the FARC as well as with insurgency groups, dictators and terror organizations in southwest Asia and Africa. The official agreed to discuss Bout only if not quoted by name.

A U.N. travel ban imposed on Bout said he supported the Liberian regime of former President Charles Taylor in its effort to destabilize neighboring Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to that West African nation's diamonds, which became known as "blood diamonds" for the warring they inspired.

Stephen Rapp, chief prosecutor of a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, said Friday that he would like to put Bout on trial. "Would we like to get our hands on Bout? Very much," he said.

Rapp said atrocities against civilians and other abuses committed in the wars that wracked Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West and Central Africa were mainly the fault of rebel forces and political leaders.

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