Accused Syrian arms dealer not a Spanish spy: U.S.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An accused Syrian arms dealer on trial for agreeing to sell weapons to Colombian rebels was driven by greed and was not working with Spanish intelligence as the defense claims, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Monzer al-Kassar, 62, a longtime Spanish resident known as the "prince of Marbella" for his lifestyle in the glitzy seaside town, is accused of conspiring to sell $1 million of weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
U.S. prosecutors have called him one of the world's most prolific arms dealers and in closing arguments rejected the defense assertion that Kassar was a legitimate arms merchant who, when dealing with U.S. informants on the FARC deal in 2007, was instead spying on them for Spanish intelligence.
The defense had made that assertion during the two-week trial at a federal court in Manhattan and showed video depositions from two Spanish intelligence officers.
But Kassar's motivation on the $1 million FARC deal was purely financial, prosecutor Boyd Johnson told jurors.
"The defendants weren't working for Spanish intelligence on this deal, they were working for themselves," Johnson said.
The U.S. government hired undercover operatives in a sting operation to pose as FARC arms buyers and to videotape negotiations in Spain with Kassar and another defendant, Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59.
"Monzer al-Kassar and Moreno were obsessed with the money," Johnson said.
Two of the informants testified during the trial and prosecutors played videotapes, telephone recordings and showed e-mails and handwritten notes found in Kassar's Marbella home as evidence of the deal that included assault and sniper rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers.
They also showed documents found in Kassar's briefcase when he was arrested at the Madrid airport in June 2007. Kassar says he was at the time on his way to meet Spanish intelligence.
Kassar, who sat in the courtroom and at times whispered to his lawyer, is charged with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals and officers, conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and providing support to a terrorist organization.
"Al-Kassar knew the missiles would be used to hit U.S. helicopters in Colombia," Johnson said. "The defendants thought the weapons were going to be used to kill Americans."
Moreno Godoy's lawyer Roger Stavis called Al-Kassar a "successful businessman" who wanted to do a legal arms deal. If the deal appeared to be illegal he would have reported them to Spanish intelligence.
They were not solely working for the intelligence agency, Stavis said. "If the people weren't bad people, they were going to do the deal."
He also said the informants were former drug traffickers paid millions by the U.S. government whose word could not be trusted.
Closing arguments from Kassar's lawyer were due on Wednesday.
The U.S. Embassy in Madrid said Kassar has been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.
(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Vicki Allen)
