Thread: Victor Bout - Russian Businessman (?) facing 25 years in US prison

rockzmom, if you're arrested somewhere abroad, brought to US and got accused of the arms trade, what witnesses would you be able to present? Some Nicaraguan guerilla fighter who would say 'No, your honor, that person hasn't sold me any rockets"?

Originally Posted by Ramil

rockzmom, if you're arrested somewhere abroad, brought to US and got accused of the arms trade, what witnesses would you be able to present? Some Nicaraguan guerilla fighter who would say 'No, your honor, that person hasn't sold me any rockets"?

In a way yes... if he really was selling legitimate planes and/or parts to other customers all these years, he would have some sort of paper trail and other customers he bought and sold from/to or employees. Not one of them could have been a witness to back up his story that the US set him up with this particular transaction? If the US only had this ONE example of his selling arms "the merchant of death" as they dubbed him, and not say 10 or 20 examples over the "many years" that the DEA has been watching him and building their case against him and he had records dating back years of perfectly legal transactions, with witnesses and product or photos of products to prove it, it would have helped to make a jury see a case for entrapment or that the US really was just setting him up.