Bout has pleaded not guilty to an array of charges, including United Nations sanctions busting, conspiracy to kill Americans, attempting to sell arms to terrorists, and wire fraud.
His defense presented closing arguments Monday, in which his attorney Albert Dayan reiterated his claim that Bout was a broke businessman interested only in selling two cargo planes.
Assistant US Attorney Anjan Sahni disagrees. “The defendant repeatedly said he was ready, willing and able to carry out this massive weapons deal,” Sahni told the court on Monday.
Bout and an associate, Andrew Smulian, were arrested during an undercover sting operation in Bangkok in 2008 and extradited to the United States in November of the same year. According to the US Attorney’s Office, the arsenal he offered undercover Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents “would be the envy of a small country” and included “more than 700 surface to air missiles, 5,000 AK-47s, anti-personnel landmines, C-4 explosives, literally millions of rounds of ammunition, also ultra-light airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers and missiles, and two cargo planes for delivering the described armaments.”
Sahni said the weapons Bout offered were “enough for an army.”
Dayan, in his closing remarks, said his client had been “trapped” by the DEA agents into appearing interested to sell the weapons.
“They hooked him and they trapped him,” he said. He also said the case was “unfair” and “tragic.”
According to the indictment, DEA agents met with Bout all over the world from Copenhagen to Curacao, trying to get him to illegally sell them weapons.
If convicted, Bout, 44, could face life in prison. The trial has aroused anger from the Russian government, who say the US had no right to extradite Bout, a Russian national. received a letter from Bout’s supporters on the eve of jury deliberations saying a guilty verdict would do damage to US-Russia relations.
When jurors were selected, Judge Scheindlin worried about the potential influence the media could have on jurors, so she asked all of them to sign a pledge swearing that they would not expose themselves to any media stories about Bout’s case. Violation of this would be considered perjury.
Judge Scheinlin also said that references to Bout’s alleged sale of weapons to Liberia and Sierra Leone would not be allowed in court, although many speculate that he sold those pariah regimes weapons during wars as well.
