Over a long period, the defendant repetitively advertised for sale of endangered, precious and rare wildlife products on social media; all the while illegally possessing many wildlife specimens listed in the list of endangered precious and rare species prioritized for protection.

On December 5, the People’s Court of Bao Loc city (Lam Dong province) sentenced defendant Hoang Van Tinh (born in 1965), residing in ward 2, Bao Loc city, to 5 years and 6 months in prison for the crime of “violating regulations on the protection of endangered, precious and rare wildlife”, as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 244 of the Penal Code.

Hoang Van Tinh was prosecuted by the Police Department of Bao Loc City for illegally possessing 3 specimens of a gaur head, 1 specimen of a raccoon, 1 specimen of a yellow-cheeked gibbon, and 2 specimens of serow head and many other wild animal body parts at home.

Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), yellow-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae), mainland serow (Capricornis milneedwardsii), giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis), and gaur (Bos gaurus) are all wildlife listed in the list of endangered precious and rare species prioritized for protection, promulgated together with Decree 64/2019/ND-CP – the highest level of protection according to the provisions of Vietnamese law.

Some specimens and animal body parts are stored by Hoang Van Tinh for sale on social media. Photo provided by ENV.

According to the current legal regulations, the illegal possession, transportation and trade of individuals, body parts vital to the life of wildlife, and products of the above species is a criminal law violation. This stands true regardless of the quantity, volume or value of infringing exhibits.

Recorded by Education for Nature (ENV), this is one of the cases with evidence of violations related to a very large number of endangered, precious and rare wildlife specimens discovered in Bao Loc city in particular, or Lam Dong province in general.

According to ENV, until his arrest, from 2019, Hoang Van Tinh repeatedly advertised for sale of endangered, precious and rare wildlife products on social media such as bear bile, tiger claws, tiger fangs, bear claws.

In 2019, after detecting violations of Hoang Van Tinh, ENV issued warnings and suggested that the subject stop advertising and trading endangered and precious wildlife products on social media to avoid unwanted legal consequences.

However, Hoang Van Tinh did not cooperate and continued to sell wildlife on social media.

Source: Bao ve Phap luat.