Illegal Wildlife Dealer to Spend 16 Months in Jail
Medan-ORBIT: Sentenced guilty by the judges of Medan district court for illegally trading protected wildlife species, Dede Setiawan, currently resides in Jalan Selamat, Medan, is going to spend 16 months in jail.
In addition to the imprisonment, the panel of judges lead by Waspin Simbolon S.H., also gave additional penalty by obliging him to pat IDR 5 million fines, subsidiair of 1 month in jail.
"Dede Setiawan's illicit act has violated the Law no. 5 of 1990, article 40, concerning the conservation of living natural resources and its ecosystem. He was caught red-handed while trading pratected wildlife species," said the judge.
The sentence given by the judges is more lenient than the claim of the prosecutor, Emmi Manurung, S.H. on the previous trial, the prosecutor indicted the defendant with 2 years of prison and IDR 12 million fines sunsidair to 2 months in jail
On the trial, the witness named Sofyan as the chief of the Rapid Response Police Unit (Satuan Polisi Reaksi Cepat/SPORC), Natural Resource Conservation Agency of North Sumatra, stated that Dede Setiawan sold 2 Golden Cats (adult & juvenile), 1 Gibbon, and 1 Siamang. The covert operation was conducted in Jalan Ngumban Surbakti, on Friday (7 April 2014).
The seizure of Dede Setiawan began from reports coming from several citizens who disguised as buyers to uncover the illegal practice. After gaining enough information, SPORC's team went into the scene (a cafe at Jalan Nguban Surbakti). Dede was on his own, driving a car where he took the 4 animals. The animals he sold was worth approximately IDR 25 million.
On a different occasion, the coordinator of Wildlife Crime Unit, Irma, asserted that the sentence is relatively lenient. However, compared to the other sentences given by judges in wildlife crime cases which mostly are less than a year of prison, this sentence for Dede is sufficient.
"As most wildlife crime cases end up with a 6 months of prison sentence, the 16 months punishment for Dede and IDR 5 million fines is actually ample," said Irma.
She also considers that illegal wildlife trade has come into a more advance level. Dealers used to sell the animals in pet shops, but today more dealers prefer to sell the animals online. In general, there is a decrease in the number of animals displayed for instance in the bird markets of Jakarta and Medan.
These days, dealers are much more aware and careful, and they choose not to openly display the animals they sell.
"Since 2010, dealers have moved to a more private methods of advertising their commodities like online forums, Blackberry messenger, and e-commerce," concluded Irma.
Reporter: Muhammad Fahmi
(Source: www.harianorbit.com)