New documents released by WikiLeaks show that an American diplomat warned Thailand’s prime minister last year that associates of a suspected Russian arms merchant tried to use bribery and other schemes to prevent Russian man’s extradition to the U.S.
In a February 2009 meeting with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Ambassador Eric John said associates of suspected arms trafficker Viktor Bout had influenced court testimony and hatched a plot to arrest and embarrass U.S. officials.
Bout spent more than 2-1/2 years in a Bangkok prison fighting U.S. efforts to extradite him on charges of conspiring to aid a terror group. But Thailand finally sent him by plane last month to New York, where he is being held pending trial.
