Viktor Bout to Face Pre-Trial Hearing Wednesday

Bout, a multi-millionaire known as the Merchant of Death, is suspected of selling assault weapons to international pariah regimes including Angola, Afghanistan, Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and the FARC organized crime group in Colombia.

On Wednesday, the prosecution will ask U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin for permission to present information about Bout’s long record of international arms deals in court.

According to Bout’s lawyer Albert Dayan, that is stretching the law too far.

“The prosecutors have revealed that they intend to introduce evidence in the trial designed to besmirch Bout's character and prejudice jurors against him — evidence of purported events occurring as long ago as 1997 and completely unconnected to the charged crimes,” he told U.S.-based National Public Radio.

Bout could face a minimum sentence of 24 years  and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if he is convicted of the four charges levied against him: conspiring to kill US nationals, conspiring to kill U.S. officers and employees, conspiring to use and acquire anti-aircraft missiles, and conspiring to provide material support to FARC, whose methods the U.S. government say include killing and kidnapping Americans.

When the alleged arms trafficker arrived in America to face trial, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a press conference that Bout “jumped at the chance to arm the FARC in struggles against the United States,” and that he was “Ready, willing and able to provide a substantial amount of weapons for FARC for use against the United States.”

Bharara said that the arsenal of weapons Bout and his associate Andrew Smulian offered “would be the envy of some small countries” 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 described armaments.”

Smulian has already pled guilty to charges of conspiring with Bout to commit the conspiracies outlined in the indictment.  He is expected to be the primary witness in the court proceedings.

Bout evaded authorities for years until U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operatives arrested him in Bangkok during a 2008 sting that spanned three continents.  DEA agents posed as members of the Colombian terrorist organization FARC, the world’s largest supplier of cocaine, terrorist organization seeking to buy weapons.

He was extradited in November after a Thai appeals court overturned a lower court decision.

Court officials say the trial could begin as early as September.