A US judge has sentenced Russian "merchant of death" arms smuggler Viktor Bout to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell a massive arsenal to anti-American guerrillas in Colombia.
Bout, 45, was accused of selling arms to despots and insurgency groups embroiled in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts and was the inspiration for the arms smuggler played by Nicolas Cage in the film "Lord of War".
US district judge Shira Scheindlin decided to give Bout the minimum required sentence of 25 years on one count and 15 years for each of the three other counts of which he was found guilty, to run concurrently.
"Twenty-five years is sufficient," Scheindlin said after Bout made a statement to the court, insisting he was innocent.
The sentencing had been delayed twice, with Bout's lawyer demanding more time to prepare his request for leniency and accusing prosecutors of "outrageous government conduct" in allegedly entrapping the Russian
Bout was "targeted not for investigation, for this was not an investigation -- it was a foregone conclusion," attorney Albert Dayan wrote in a letter Wednesday to Judge Scheindlin.
US agents posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a US-designated terrorist organisation, lured Bout to Thailand from his native Russia, where he was under government protection.
In Bangkok they pretended to be seeking infantry and anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down US pilots helping the Colombian military.
In secretly taped conversations, Bout said he could supply the weapons. However, his lawyer said in court he was playing a charade in order to further his real goal, which was simply to sell two cargo planes.
The Russian is widely believed to have been the world's biggest black market arms dealer in the post-Cold War period, specialising in arming African warlords and dictators. He says he worked exclusively as a private air transporter - although sometimes carrying legal shipments of arms.
He is not wanted for any crime in his native Russia, which has called for his return and cast doubt on the fairness of his conviction.
Judge Scheindlin ruled in February in favour of an appeal by Bout's lawyers to let him out of solitary confinement for the first time in 15 months.
