Russian arms trafficker Bout gets 25 years jail in arms case in US

New York, Apr 6 (ANI): Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by a federal judge in New York for conspiring to sell weapons to a US-designated foreign terrorist group based in Colombia.

Bout was convicted on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, selling anti-aircraft missiles, and to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The judge also ordered Bout to forfeit 15 million dollars, an amount equivalent to the value of the arms he had offered to sell US informants posing as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The "Merchant of Death" raised his fists in victory and quoted a famous Russian battle hymn as told a packed Manhattan courtroom: "I love you all. A proud warrior doesn't surrender!"

Bout, 45, also angrily interrupted when federal prosecutor Brendan McGuire mentioned the massive "arsenal of weapons" that Bout offered to sell to undercover informants posing as Colombian narco-terrorists, The New York Times reports.

"It's a lie," argued Bout, whose infamous exploits inspired the 2005 Nicholas Cage movie "Lord of War".

Former United Nations arms expert Kathi Lynn Austin, who investigated Bout's arms trafficking in Africa, said she was "taken aback" and "really disappointed" at his sentence. (ANI)