BANGKOK, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Suspected arms smuggler Viktor Bout will remain in Thailand, despite Washington's request for his extradition and also despite Moscow's vow to bring him home.
Bout, wanted in the United States for allegedly selling arms to Islamic militants as well as South American and African war lords, has been held in a Thai jail since 2008 when he was arrested in a joint U.S. and Thai police sting operation.
Bout was arrested at a Bangkok hotel on charges of offering to sell several hundred Russian MANPAD anti-aircraft weapons to FBI agents posing as members of the Colombian militant group FARC. Bout denies the charges.
If sent to the United States, he faces several terrorism charges and a possible life sentence in prison.
But legal wrangling over his fate has kept the former Soviet air force navigator and translator -- he is said to speak six languages -- in a maximum security prison in Bangkok.
It was to the prison, rather than the United States, that Bout was returned after a brief visit to Thailand's Criminal Court to hear the latest ruling on his future.
The senior court rejected an application by the prosecution to drop new charges against Bout, 43, delaying again a potential extradition to the United States.
UPI
