IL76 gun running for North Korea
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Gatwick, United Kingdom
Posts: 155
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
IL76 gun running for North Korea
Just saw this article on the BBC News web site.
Does anyone have any further details of which airline this is?
BBC News - Thailand seizes 'arms plane flying from North Korea'
Does anyone have any further details of which airline this is?
BBC News - Thailand seizes 'arms plane flying from North Korea'
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Aussii
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Few months back an IL76 staged through Clark in Philippines
was routing Prague _ Colombo - Clark - Pyongyang
If I remeber it was an Il76 with Jordanian reg JY-JIA..flew same route back a few days later
Loaded to the gunnels with large crates ( no manifest)
was routing Prague _ Colombo - Clark - Pyongyang
If I remeber it was an Il76 with Jordanian reg JY-JIA..flew same route back a few days later
Loaded to the gunnels with large crates ( no manifest)
Incident: Air West Georgia IL76 at Bangkok on Dec 12th 2009, aircraft impounded because carrying weapons
Air West Georgia IL-76 Reg 4L-AWA
Air West Georgia IL-76 Reg 4L-AWA
complete with ICAo AOCJoin Date: Jul 2007
Location: My Stringy Brane
Posts: 377
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
AP reports:
Crew of NKorean weapons plane in Thai court
By JANE FUGAL, Associated Press
– Sun Dec 13 BANGKOK –
The crew of a cargo plane loaded with war weapons from North Korea was ordered Monday to remain in a Thai prison for 12 days for further investigations, as Thailand remained tightlipped about events leading to the aircraft's seizure and where it was headed.
Thai authorities reportedly acted on a tip from their American counterparts when they impounded the Ilyushin 76 transport plane Saturday and discovered 35 tons of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles — a violation of United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
Members of the five-man crew — four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus — were charged Sunday with illegal arms possession and refused bail. Bangkok's Criminal Court on Monday approved a request from authorities to extend their detention by 12 days for further investigation, said police spokesman Pongsapat Pongjaren.
The men, who declined comment to reporters at the courthouse, reportedly told investigators during a six-hour interrogation Sunday they believed they were carrying oil-drilling equipment and were not aware of any illicit cargo.
Thailand's deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said Monday he could not confirm conflicting local media reports about the plane's destination, with some saying it was headed to Sri Lanka and others saying Pakistan. He also declined comment on whether Thai authorities had ordered the plane to land or if the aircraft was intercepted during a refueling stop in Bangkok.
"What I can say is that the actions that were taken were done pursuant to the U.N. Security Council resolution," Thani said, adding Thai authorities had been tipped off but he wouldn't say by whom. "We had reliable information which led to the act."
The latest U.N. sanctions — which ban the transport of certain weapons from or to North Korea — were imposed in June after the reclusive communist regime conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. The sanctions were aimed at derailing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but also banned the North's sale of any conventional arms.
The seizure came just days after President Barack Obama's special envoy made a rare three-day trip to North Korea on a mission to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Envoy Stephen Bosworth said the two sides had reached common understandings on the need to restart the talks.
"There is a possibility that the incident could have a negative effect on moves to get the North to rejoin the six-party talks and a U.S.-North Korea dialogue mood,"
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said Sunday.
North Korea has been widely accused of violating United Nations sanctions by selling weapons to nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
According to Thai Air Force spokesman Capt. Montol Suchookorn on Sunday the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, and requested to land at Don Muang airport to refuel.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Turner said the embassy would not comment on if Americans had tipped off Thai authorities.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban called a Monday meeting of Thailand's National Security Council to discuss the case. He said it would take several days to obtain details on the incident, which would be reported to the United Nations, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
"People should not be alarmed because the government will ensure that the investigation will be carried out transparently. The government will be able to explain the situation to foreign countries," Suthep said Sunday.
Thai authorities said the weapons were moved by trucks amid high security Saturday night from the airport to a military base in the nearby province of Nakhon Sawan.
Baek Seung-joo of the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said the seizure demonstrated a U.S. intention to continue to enforce sanctions on the North while also engaging in dialogue.
Arms sales are a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North. Baek said the North is believed to have earned hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries like Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
In August, the United Arab Emirates seized a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up.
___
Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
By JANE FUGAL, Associated Press
– Sun Dec 13 BANGKOK –
The crew of a cargo plane loaded with war weapons from North Korea was ordered Monday to remain in a Thai prison for 12 days for further investigations, as Thailand remained tightlipped about events leading to the aircraft's seizure and where it was headed.
Thai authorities reportedly acted on a tip from their American counterparts when they impounded the Ilyushin 76 transport plane Saturday and discovered 35 tons of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles — a violation of United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
Members of the five-man crew — four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus — were charged Sunday with illegal arms possession and refused bail. Bangkok's Criminal Court on Monday approved a request from authorities to extend their detention by 12 days for further investigation, said police spokesman Pongsapat Pongjaren.
The men, who declined comment to reporters at the courthouse, reportedly told investigators during a six-hour interrogation Sunday they believed they were carrying oil-drilling equipment and were not aware of any illicit cargo.
Thailand's deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said Monday he could not confirm conflicting local media reports about the plane's destination, with some saying it was headed to Sri Lanka and others saying Pakistan. He also declined comment on whether Thai authorities had ordered the plane to land or if the aircraft was intercepted during a refueling stop in Bangkok.
"What I can say is that the actions that were taken were done pursuant to the U.N. Security Council resolution," Thani said, adding Thai authorities had been tipped off but he wouldn't say by whom. "We had reliable information which led to the act."
The latest U.N. sanctions — which ban the transport of certain weapons from or to North Korea — were imposed in June after the reclusive communist regime conducted a nuclear test and test-fired missiles. The sanctions were aimed at derailing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but also banned the North's sale of any conventional arms.
The seizure came just days after President Barack Obama's special envoy made a rare three-day trip to North Korea on a mission to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Envoy Stephen Bosworth said the two sides had reached common understandings on the need to restart the talks.
"There is a possibility that the incident could have a negative effect on moves to get the North to rejoin the six-party talks and a U.S.-North Korea dialogue mood,"
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said Sunday.
North Korea has been widely accused of violating United Nations sanctions by selling weapons to nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
According to Thai Air Force spokesman Capt. Montol Suchookorn on Sunday the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, and requested to land at Don Muang airport to refuel.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Turner said the embassy would not comment on if Americans had tipped off Thai authorities.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban called a Monday meeting of Thailand's National Security Council to discuss the case. He said it would take several days to obtain details on the incident, which would be reported to the United Nations, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
"People should not be alarmed because the government will ensure that the investigation will be carried out transparently. The government will be able to explain the situation to foreign countries," Suthep said Sunday.
Thai authorities said the weapons were moved by trucks amid high security Saturday night from the airport to a military base in the nearby province of Nakhon Sawan.
Baek Seung-joo of the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said the seizure demonstrated a U.S. intention to continue to enforce sanctions on the North while also engaging in dialogue.
Arms sales are a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North. Baek said the North is believed to have earned hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries like Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
In August, the United Arab Emirates seized a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up.
___
Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UTC +8
Posts: 2,626
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Kazakhstan and Belarus IL76 boys are claiming that they didn't have a clue about what sort of cargo was inside the crates. That may be true if they are severely naive, completely dumb or stupid. Because what other cargo would a militarized, bankrupt, hermit state be capable of exporting . . . ? 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Central London
Posts: 460
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As I understand from local contacts this was not the first time this aircraft has stopped to refuel at BKK. The only difference this time was that they were refused Suvarnabhumi and moved to Don Muang.
The US secret service CIA etc were involved.
If I had been the pilot I would have moved on elsewhere before landing at Don Muang.
The US secret service CIA etc were involved.
If I had been the pilot I would have moved on elsewhere before landing at Don Muang.
Join Date: Sep 1998
Location: on the move
Age: 54
Posts: 868
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
i wonder if they r in the same prison as Victor Bout!he was probably co-ordinating the shipment from his jail. I flew cargo for 5 years.....u always know whats in the back!
Top Dog
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Close to FACT
Age: 55
Posts: 2,098
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A senior Obama administration official said the United States — which fears North Korea will sell some of its nuclear technology — had tipped off the Thai authorities that the plane, which landed here Friday, might be carrying weapons.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: In da north country
Age: 62
Posts: 452
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
You don't always know whats in back!
I have asked many times what we were carrying, and told, "its above your pay grade" I asked if it was animal, vegetable or mineral. Not my position to know! Wait, I'm the captain! I have a right to know! Ask the Chief Pilot????, he's ex military. Fly it , or you're fired!
It is very possible that they didn't know what it was. Sometimes it is so well packed, you couldn't possibly guess without opening it.
I have asked many times what we were carrying, and told, "its above your pay grade" I asked if it was animal, vegetable or mineral. Not my position to know! Wait, I'm the captain! I have a right to know! Ask the Chief Pilot????, he's ex military. Fly it , or you're fired!
It is very possible that they didn't know what it was. Sometimes it is so well packed, you couldn't possibly guess without opening it.
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: UTC +8
Posts: 2,626
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Willit Run . . .You're either missing the point or you are naive to suggest that the crew wouldn't have a clue as to what could be carried inside large crates from North Korea: A bankrupt economic hermit state whose citizens are malnourished from lack of food; a country that produces no consumer goods for export. A country whose entire productive capacity is consumed by militarization. For any crew member not to know this, he must have been living in isolation and cut off from common global media coverage. 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Central London
Posts: 460
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
More answers in todays Bangkok Post.
Police investigate Bout link
Plane has long history of role in arms deals
Investigators are convinced the massive arms shipment found on a cargo plane intercepted by Thai authorities on Sunday while refuelling at Don Mueang airport was headed for a Middle East country.
Even though one of the detained aircraft crew told investigators the Russian-made Ilyushin II-76 was en route from North Korea to Ukraine, with stopovers in Bangkok and Sri Lanka, investigators were not convinced. The crew could have changed the flight plan at any time, sources said yesterday.
The sources said the arms were not bound for Sri Lanka. The delivery location was a country in the Middle East but they refused to identify which one.
Police, air force officers, prosecutors and officers from the National Intelligence Agency yesterday carried out a detailed inspection of the 35 tonnes of weapons in 145 boxes and crates.
The arms are being kept at three depots at the air force's Wing 4 airbase in Takhli district, Nakhon Sawan.
Police will ask prosecutors to file further charges against the suspects after they have completed their inspection.
IIyas Issakov, Viktor Abdukkayev, Alexandr Zrybnev and Vitaliy Shunkov from Kazakhstan and Mikhail Petukou from Belarus have been charged with illegal possession of weapons.
Crime Suppression Division commander Supisarn Phakdinaruenart yesterday said they would also be charged with possessing explosives, a crime which carries a penalty of between two years in jail and the death sentence.
The investigators were trying to uncover a possible link between them and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is being detained at Bangkok Remand Prison. The five foreigners are being held in the same prison but in different areas.
Mr Bout, dubbed the Merchant of Death, was arrested in Thailand in March last year. He is wanted in the US, which has been trying to extradite him from Thailand to face charges of supplying arms to rebel groups in different countries.
Pol Col Supisarn of the CSD said investigators were looking at the Bout case to see whether there was a connection with the five men arrested on Sunday.
Another link to Bout surfaced among details pointing to the plane's long history of making deliveries for arms dealers, said Hugh Griffiths, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank tracking the arms trade and analysing military spending.
The crew's Thai lawyer said the plane was registered to Air West, a cargo transport company in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Prior to that it was registered under a company named Beibars linked to Serbian arms trafficker Tonislav Damnjanovic, and before that with three companies identified by the US Treasury Department as firms controlled by Mr Bout, said Mr Griffiths, who is leading a project monitoring air cargo companies involved in arms trafficking.
"They are like flocks of migrating birds, these aircraft. They change from one company to another because the previous one has either been closed for safety reasons or been identified in a UN trafficking report," he said.
In this case, he said the arms dealers changed the plane's country of registration to Georgia because the European Union had banned all cargo carriers registered in Kazakhstan, where Beibars is registered and where four of the crew originate.
Mr Griffiths said the past owners of the aircraft had been documented by the United Nations as trafficking arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. He said the plane also was used to ship arms from the Balkans to Burundi in October.
The plane has since continued to change hands.
Officials in Kazakhstan and Georgia said on Monday the Air West plane was leased recently to SP Trading for transporting cargo. The company operates out of New Zealand, said Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ilyas Omarov.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the seizure, saying it "shows that sanctions can prevent the proliferation of weapons and it shows that the international community when it stands together can make a very strong statement"
Police investigate Bout link
Plane has long history of role in arms deals
Investigators are convinced the massive arms shipment found on a cargo plane intercepted by Thai authorities on Sunday while refuelling at Don Mueang airport was headed for a Middle East country.
Even though one of the detained aircraft crew told investigators the Russian-made Ilyushin II-76 was en route from North Korea to Ukraine, with stopovers in Bangkok and Sri Lanka, investigators were not convinced. The crew could have changed the flight plan at any time, sources said yesterday.
The sources said the arms were not bound for Sri Lanka. The delivery location was a country in the Middle East but they refused to identify which one.
Police, air force officers, prosecutors and officers from the National Intelligence Agency yesterday carried out a detailed inspection of the 35 tonnes of weapons in 145 boxes and crates.
The arms are being kept at three depots at the air force's Wing 4 airbase in Takhli district, Nakhon Sawan.
Police will ask prosecutors to file further charges against the suspects after they have completed their inspection.
IIyas Issakov, Viktor Abdukkayev, Alexandr Zrybnev and Vitaliy Shunkov from Kazakhstan and Mikhail Petukou from Belarus have been charged with illegal possession of weapons.
Crime Suppression Division commander Supisarn Phakdinaruenart yesterday said they would also be charged with possessing explosives, a crime which carries a penalty of between two years in jail and the death sentence.
The investigators were trying to uncover a possible link between them and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is being detained at Bangkok Remand Prison. The five foreigners are being held in the same prison but in different areas.
Mr Bout, dubbed the Merchant of Death, was arrested in Thailand in March last year. He is wanted in the US, which has been trying to extradite him from Thailand to face charges of supplying arms to rebel groups in different countries.
Pol Col Supisarn of the CSD said investigators were looking at the Bout case to see whether there was a connection with the five men arrested on Sunday.
Another link to Bout surfaced among details pointing to the plane's long history of making deliveries for arms dealers, said Hugh Griffiths, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank tracking the arms trade and analysing military spending.
The crew's Thai lawyer said the plane was registered to Air West, a cargo transport company in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Prior to that it was registered under a company named Beibars linked to Serbian arms trafficker Tonislav Damnjanovic, and before that with three companies identified by the US Treasury Department as firms controlled by Mr Bout, said Mr Griffiths, who is leading a project monitoring air cargo companies involved in arms trafficking.
"They are like flocks of migrating birds, these aircraft. They change from one company to another because the previous one has either been closed for safety reasons or been identified in a UN trafficking report," he said.
In this case, he said the arms dealers changed the plane's country of registration to Georgia because the European Union had banned all cargo carriers registered in Kazakhstan, where Beibars is registered and where four of the crew originate.
Mr Griffiths said the past owners of the aircraft had been documented by the United Nations as trafficking arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. He said the plane also was used to ship arms from the Balkans to Burundi in October.
The plane has since continued to change hands.
Officials in Kazakhstan and Georgia said on Monday the Air West plane was leased recently to SP Trading for transporting cargo. The company operates out of New Zealand, said Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ilyas Omarov.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the seizure, saying it "shows that sanctions can prevent the proliferation of weapons and it shows that the international community when it stands together can make a very strong statement"
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: somewhere in Western Canada
Posts: 202
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thailand Extradites Russian Arms Suspect to U.S. (Victor Bout)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/wo...ef=global-home
Thailand Extradites Russian Arms Suspect to U.S.By SETH MYDANS
Published: November 16, 2010
BANGKOK — Thailand extradited Viktor Bout, a Russian accused of arms trafficking, to the United States on Tuesday, abandoning the diplomatic balancing act it had conducted for more than two years between Washington and Moscow.
Associated Press
Viktor Bout, an accused arms trafficker, was escorted by Thai police in Bangkok on Tuesday.
Two motorcades — one apparently a decoy — made the trip to Don Muang Airport, where about 50 police officers, including snipers, kept watch, according to local news media. Shortly afterward, an airport official confirmed that Mr. Bout had left on a chartered 20-seat American aircraft. Also aboard were two pilots and six officials from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
Information about his movements was being closely held for security reasons, but he was expected to arrive in New York on Tuesday evening and be arraigned in United States District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Mr. Bout, 43, is a former Soviet Air Force officer who became known as the “Merchant of Death” for what American officials say is an arms trafficking network that encompassed Africa, Afghanistan and South America. He is also reputed to know the current shape of Russian intelligence, and Washington has been in a tug of war with Moscow since his arrest in March 2008 over whether he would go on trial in the United States.
Mr. Bout was arrested at a Bangkok hotel after he agreed, according to the authorities, to sell millions of dollars in weapons to undercover American agents posing as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The group has been fighting Colombia’s government for decades and finances itself partly through the cocaine trade.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said Mr. Bout is an innocent businessman, as he himself claims.
On Tuesday, the ministry released a statement angrily calling the extradition illegal. “From a legal perspective, what has occurred cannot have a rational explanation and justification,” the statement said. “There is no doubt that the illegal extradition of Viktor Bout came about as a consequence of unprecedented political pressure exerted by the U.S. on the government and judicial authorities of Thailand. It is deeply regrettable that the Thai authorities succumbed to political pressure from outside and undertook the illegal extradition.”
Thailand had long tried not to offend either Russia or the United States over Mr. Bout’s case. In October, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the two to resolve the issue on their own.
“We have certainly indicated that they should talk, rather than putting all the burden on us,” he said. “It would make it easy for us if they could come up with a common position because, after all, these kinds of decisions must be made with a view to maintaining good relations, which is in the interests of the Thai people and also our friends.”
But on Tuesday, it appeared that Thailand had whisked Mr. Bout to the airport without informing the Russians.
“This information did not arrive at the embassy officially,” the chief of the Russian Embassy’s consular service, Andrei Dvornikov, told the Interfax news agency. “There were neither notes nor telephone calls.”
Mr. Bout’s Thai lawyer said that the Thai authorities had not informed him, Mr. Bout’s wife, Alla, or the Russian Embassy in Bangkok about the move.
“Alla Bout and I were so confused and shocked since they didn’t inform us about the extradition,” said the lawyer, Lak Nittiwattanawichan. “We just learned about this late in the morning. Yesterday, we went to visit him at the prison and everything was normal.”
He said that he would sue because the “Thai authorities have violated the law.”
Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow, Benjamin Weiser from New York, and Poypiti Amatatham from Bangkok.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/wo...ef=global-home
Thailand Extradites Russian Arms Suspect to U.S.By SETH MYDANS
Published: November 16, 2010
BANGKOK — Thailand extradited Viktor Bout, a Russian accused of arms trafficking, to the United States on Tuesday, abandoning the diplomatic balancing act it had conducted for more than two years between Washington and Moscow.
Associated Press
Viktor Bout, an accused arms trafficker, was escorted by Thai police in Bangkok on Tuesday.
Two motorcades — one apparently a decoy — made the trip to Don Muang Airport, where about 50 police officers, including snipers, kept watch, according to local news media. Shortly afterward, an airport official confirmed that Mr. Bout had left on a chartered 20-seat American aircraft. Also aboard were two pilots and six officials from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
Information about his movements was being closely held for security reasons, but he was expected to arrive in New York on Tuesday evening and be arraigned in United States District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Mr. Bout, 43, is a former Soviet Air Force officer who became known as the “Merchant of Death” for what American officials say is an arms trafficking network that encompassed Africa, Afghanistan and South America. He is also reputed to know the current shape of Russian intelligence, and Washington has been in a tug of war with Moscow since his arrest in March 2008 over whether he would go on trial in the United States.
Mr. Bout was arrested at a Bangkok hotel after he agreed, according to the authorities, to sell millions of dollars in weapons to undercover American agents posing as rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The group has been fighting Colombia’s government for decades and finances itself partly through the cocaine trade.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said Mr. Bout is an innocent businessman, as he himself claims.
On Tuesday, the ministry released a statement angrily calling the extradition illegal. “From a legal perspective, what has occurred cannot have a rational explanation and justification,” the statement said. “There is no doubt that the illegal extradition of Viktor Bout came about as a consequence of unprecedented political pressure exerted by the U.S. on the government and judicial authorities of Thailand. It is deeply regrettable that the Thai authorities succumbed to political pressure from outside and undertook the illegal extradition.”
Thailand had long tried not to offend either Russia or the United States over Mr. Bout’s case. In October, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the two to resolve the issue on their own.
“We have certainly indicated that they should talk, rather than putting all the burden on us,” he said. “It would make it easy for us if they could come up with a common position because, after all, these kinds of decisions must be made with a view to maintaining good relations, which is in the interests of the Thai people and also our friends.”
But on Tuesday, it appeared that Thailand had whisked Mr. Bout to the airport without informing the Russians.
“This information did not arrive at the embassy officially,” the chief of the Russian Embassy’s consular service, Andrei Dvornikov, told the Interfax news agency. “There were neither notes nor telephone calls.”
Mr. Bout’s Thai lawyer said that the Thai authorities had not informed him, Mr. Bout’s wife, Alla, or the Russian Embassy in Bangkok about the move.
“Alla Bout and I were so confused and shocked since they didn’t inform us about the extradition,” said the lawyer, Lak Nittiwattanawichan. “We just learned about this late in the morning. Yesterday, we went to visit him at the prison and everything was normal.”
He said that he would sue because the “Thai authorities have violated the law.”
Clifford J. Levy contributed reporting from Moscow, Benjamin Weiser from New York, and Poypiti Amatatham from Bangkok.
