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On the bin Laden Arms Trail
Friday, March 01, 2002
(13:03 GMT)
By Eric Watkins
The BBC

Mr Ruprah is a potentially valuable informant because UN reports tie him to the illicit diamond trade in West Africa and to arrangements for Mr Bout's weapons deliveries to be paid for with diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola.

Belgian authorities have issued an international warrant for the arrest of Victor Bout, an arms dealer accused of selling weapons to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and to the Taleban, former rulers of Afghanistan.

"We have launched an international arrest warrant for Bout," a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor's office said.

He added that Belgian authorities were awaiting further information from officials in Russia, where the alleged smuggler is thought to live.

But in an interview broadcast live on Moscow radio on Thursday Mr Bout denied that he had been involved in smuggling weapons to al-Qaeda. "I have never supplied anything to or had any contacts with the Taleban or al-Qaeda," he said.

Described as short, stocky and usually sporting a bushy moustache, Bout, 35, was an air force officeruntil the break up of the Soviet Union.

* Diamond trade
* Weapons bans
* 'Merchant of death'
(More: BBC.com News Source)
2002 © British Broadcasting Corporation.

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