A Russian arms dealer thought to have inspired the lead character in the blockbuster film Lord of War was arrested in Bangkok today.

Viktor Bout, 41, was detained while allegedly attempting to buy weapons for Colombian rebels.

Dubbed "the merchant of death", he has been accused of breaking UN embargoes since the early 1990s by selling arms to conflict-torn regions in Africa and around the world.

Thai police said today that Mr Bout had been arrested in a Bangkok hotel. "He was attempting to procure weapons for Colombia’s FARC rebels”, the arrest report said.

According to the United Nations and the US Treasury Department, Mr Bout has sold arms or brokered deals that have helped fuel wars in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

In 2006, the US Treasury Department seized his cargo planes and froze other assets.

Mr Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.

It is believed that he was the model for the arms dealer played by Nicholas Cage in the 2005 film Lord of War.

A report by Amnesty International published in the same year accused Mr Bout of being “the most prominent foreign businessman” involved in trafficking arms to UN-embargoed destinations from Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

Today, the human rights organisation questioned why Mr Bout had been able to continue his alleged gun-running for so many years.

Oliver Sprague, of Amnesty International UK, said: “While we welcome the fact that Viktor Bout has finally been arrested, why has it taken so long for this to happen?

“This is exactly why an international arms trade treaty is needed. Such a treaty would close loopholes that gun-runners like Viktor Bout so easily exploit for their own gain."

Stephan Rapp, Chief Prosecutor at Sierra Leone’s UN-backed war crimes court, welcomed the arrest: “It’s very good news for justice and for international law enforcement.”

He accused Mr Bout of using his international network to smuggle arms through neighbouring Liberia to fuel Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war.

In 2000, Peter Hain, then the Foreign Office minister responsible for Africa, publicly condemned Mr Bout in the House of Commons as “the chief sanctions-buster” and “a merchant of death”.

Mr Hain today welcomed news of his arrest in Thailand: “I exposed him in the House of Commons when I was a Foreign Office minister, using parliamentary privilege regarding intelligence by M16.

“He has been for many years a merchant of death, flying arms in the late 1990s into Sierra Leone, Angola and the Congo. I tried working with the security intelligence services to disrupt his activities when I was in the Foreign Office and we were partially successful.

“After I named him in Parliament, it did damage his lethal activities but he still had too many friends in Moscow as an ex-KGB agent."

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