MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Arms dealer involved with FARC extradited from Spain to US

The Spanish government on Friday authorized the extradition to the United States of a suspected Syrian weapons dealer accused of planning to supply arms to Colombian rebels, the government said in Madrid.

But Monzer al-Kassar will only be delivered to US authorities if they provide assurances that he will not face the death penalty or a life sentence with no chance of release, the government said in a statement. The United States accuses Kassar, who was arrested in Madrid in June last year, of agreeing to provide arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to protect a cocaine-trafficking business and attack U.S. interests. A long-time Spanish resident known as the "Prince of Marbella" for his outlandish lifestyle, Kassar has sold weapons to the Palestine Liberation Front, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia since the 1970s, according to a release from the US Embassy in Madrid. In the nineties Kassar managed to obtain an Argentine passport and was a frequent visitor of the country where he mingled with government authorities.