Arms dealer¹ Viktor Bout², dubbed³ the "merchant of death", has been sentenced to 25 years in jail by a US judge.

武器商人威克特·布特，号称“死亡商人”，被一位美国法官判处25年监禁。

During the sentencing, the ex-Soviet officer shouted "it's a lie" as the prosecution⁴ said he had agreed to sell weapons to kill Americans.

The 45-year-old was found guilty in November of attempting to sell heavy arms to a Colombian rebel group.

He was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 after a sting operation（突击圈套） in which US informants（告密者） posed as Colombian rebels.

Bout - who was the inspiration for the arms smuggler⁵ in the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War - remained in custody⁶ in Thailand for two years, before being extradited to the US to face trial.

'God knows truth'

Bout, a vegetarian⁷ who speaks six languages, hugged his lawyer and waved to his wife as he was led from the court on Thursday.

Earlier, he told the judge through a Russian interpreter that he "never intended to kill anyone" and said, "God knows this truth."

Sentencing had been delayed twice as his lawyer asked for more time to prepare and accused prosecutors⁸ of "outrageous⁹ government conduct" for allegedly entrapping¹⁰ the Russian.

Judge Shira Scheindlin said that 25 years was appropriate sentence for his crimes given the sting set up by US officials. She also ordered him to forfeit¹¹ $15m (£9.5m).

"But for the approach made through this determined¹² sting operation, there is no reason to believe Bout would ever have committed the charged crimes," she said.

Albert Dayan, Bout's lawyer, said they would appeal his conviction.

Bout agreed to sell 100 advanced portable surface-to-air missiles and approximately 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles during a meeting at a Bangkok hotel, according to prosecutors.

That meeting was not with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), but with US Drug Enforcement Administration officials posing as representatives of the guerrilla group.