Colombia seeks Israeli mercenary

The AUC paramilitary group has been linked to the drugs trade

Colombia is to seek the extradition of an Israeli mercenary, convicted in absentia of training death squads, who has been arrested in Russia.

Yair Klein, a former Israeli colonel, was held at a Moscow airport on an international arrest warrant.

He was sentenced to 10 years for training drugs traffickers and right-wing paramilitaries in the 1980s.

Prosecutors say those trained went on to carry out some of the country's most notorious political assassinations.

"Colombia's government is going to make a formal petition to the Russian foreign ministry, so he is sent here to pay his sentence," Colombia's foreign minister Fernando Araujo told reporters.

The Russian authorities have refused to provide details about Klein's capture and have not commented on the extradition request. BBC