Arms dealer gets minimum 25-year sentence

A defiant Russian arms dealer dubbed the Merchant of Death was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison, far short of the life term prosecutors sought for his conviction on terrorism charges that grew from a U.S. sting operation.

Viktor Bout's sentence was the mandatory minimum.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan said it was sufficient and appropriate because Bout's crimes originated only because of an elaborate sting operation created by the Drug Enforcement Administration to catch one of the world's most notorious arms dealers.

She said there was no evidence Bout, 45, had ever planned to harm Americans or commit a crime punishable in U.S. court until the sting.

"But for the approach made through this determined sting," she said, "there is no reason to believe Bout would ever have committed the charged crimes."

As Bout left the courtroom, he hugged his lawyer and waved to his wife.

Bout told the judge he "never intended to kill anyone," and said, "God knows this truth."

He was arrested four years ago in Thailand following a U.S. sting and was extradited to the United States for trial in 2010.

Prosecutors contend he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to shoot down U.S. helicopters.

Prosecutors said Bout's weapons fueled armed conflicts in some of the world's most treacherous hot spots, including Rwanda, Angola and the Congo. Bout, the inspiration for an arms dealer character played by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 film "Lord of War," has maintained he wasn't selling arms when the American operatives knocked on his door.

Defense attorney Albert Dayan wrote the judge that the government targeted his client vindictively because it was embarrassed that his companies helped deliver goods to American military contractors involved in the Iraq War. At the time, UN sanctions were imposed against Bout, Dayan said.

The Merchant of Death moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister at Britain's Foreign Office.