On Monday, the Da Nang People’s Court sentenced 29-year-old Nguyen Van Ly from Nghe An Province’s Tan Ky District to 3 years in prison for ‘violating national regulations on conservation of rare and precious wildlife’.

Ly at the trial (Photo: VnExpress)

According to the specific indictment by the local prosecutors, in March 2015, Ly and his fellow-country associates were found illegally trapping wild animals at sub-area No 64 in the Son Tra Nature Reserve.  They were 40-year-old Vi Van Son and 59-year-old Vi Van Hoang, 62-year-old Nguyen Van Hoi and 25-year-old Le Thi Lan.

Seized at the scene were 90 steel wires and 10 iron jaw traps, along with a total of 3.11kg of wild animals’ bones, skin, meat and internal organs which had been cut into pieces and then grilled.

The wild animals killed included 2 red-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus) which belong to Group IIB which is rare animals restricted from being held in captivity, hunted, traded or killed.

During interrogation, Ly admitted that he and his associates had set up tents in the nature reserve many times in the past in order to illegally trap wild animals. 

Earlier, in July 2016, Son and Hoang had been sentenced to 3 and 2.5 years in prison respectively for the same charge as Ly.  In March 2017, a prison term of 2 years was also handed down to Hoi, whilst Lan was given a 2-year suspended sentence.