Duo gets 6 months' jail in country's first rhino horn trafficking conviction

The Sepang Sessions Court made history today as it convicted and sentenced two men for trafficking 50 rhinoceros horns that are worth between RM3 million and RM8 million, making it the first conviction of such a case in the country.

Wildlife and National Parks Department prosecutor Danial Munir confirmed to Malaysiakini that judge Ahmad Fuad Othman convicted the offenders, Sukry Wahab and Hafiszan Naser, each charged with two counts of the offence, after the court found their defence against the charges was unsustainable.

“The court held that both the accused failed to cast a reasonable doubt towards the prosecution’s case (and) agreed with the prosecution that the defence of both the accused, where they claimed to be an ‘innocent carrier’, is an afterthought and amounts to wilful blindness.

“The judge also said that wildlife needs to be protected for the sake of environmental sustainability (which) if the law is not fully enforced, perhaps the wildlife will become extinct, affecting environmental sustainability,” he said.

Danial added that the court sentenced each accused to six months of jail time for each count of offences and ordered that the sentences be served concurrently, starting today.

The judge also ordered the rhinoceros horns, which consist of 49 units of square-lipped rhinoceros horn and one unit of black rhinoceros horn, as well as the truck used by the accused in committing the crime, to be forfeited to the government.

Lawyers Aqeeb Lizalman and Abdul Aziz Hamzah represented the accused in today’s proceedings.

Sukry and Hafiszan, both 30, were charged on April 24 last year under Section 68(1)(b) of the Wildlife Conservation Act, where they were accused of possessing the horns without a special permit.

The provision carries a maximum of RM100,000 fine and three years of jail sentence.

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