INDIA: 1 BRITAIN & 5 LATVIANS CONVICTED OF ARMS SMUGGLING

Описание: (31 Jan 2000) Natural Sound

A court in India convicted a British arms dealer and five Latvians in an arms smuggling case on Monday.

The defendants escaped the death penalty after being cleared of waging war against India but face jail sentences of up to ten years.

The trial of Peter Bleach and his co-defendants in Calcutta has lasted nearly three years and involved allegations of a conspiracy and cover-up by both the Indian and British governments.

The six men were convicted of bringing arms into the country as part of an international conspiracy.

They had been arrested over four years ago after allegedly parachuting crates of weapons from a cargo plane onto a field in eastern India in 1996.

The claims of a conspiracy against them by the defendants attracted much media attention.

But Monday's guilty ruling means the men could now face up to ten years in prison.

Seen here outside the court two weeks ago, the English arms dealer Peter Bleach now says he will appeal against the ruling.

His Latvian co-defendant Igor Timmerman said they were \"disappointed\" with the verdict.

The judge acquitted the seventh defendant, Vinay Singh, an Indian.

He said the prosecution had failed to prove conspiracy charges against him.

The prosecution claimed the defendants had provided assault rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and missiles for an anti-communist religious group in West Bengal, a state with a communist government.

After nearly three years on trial, Bleach and the Latvian crewmen, Alexandre Klinchine, Oleg Gaidach, Igor Timmerman, Eugueni Antimanko and Igor Noskvitin, expect to hear their sentences on February 2.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...