Congo / Justice: Six wildlife traffickers condemned by the Ouesso Court of Appeal (Republic of the Congo)
Translated from the French by an automated online translation service, so
please excuse the roughness. See link for original.
Congo / Justice: Six wildlife traffickers condemned by the Ouesso Court of
Appeal (Republic of the Congo)
Sylvain Maniongui, Groupe Congo Medias
April 2, 2021
See link
<https://groupecongomedias.com/congo-justice-six-trafiquants-de-produits-fauniques-condamnes-par-la-cour-dappel-de-ouesso/
for photo.
The Ouesso Court of Appeal in the Sangha Department rendered its verdicts
on March 24, 2021, in the cases of six traffickers in wildlife products.
These wildlife delinquents were arrested in the red-handed possession and
circulation of ten pieces of ivory for some, a bag of giant pangolin scales
for others, and a panther skin for another still dated February 27, 2019 in
Impfondo in the Likouala Department.
Three traffickers indicted in the ivory tusks case, namely: NAIL Merlin
Thibault, MOBULA Genesis and ANTOUNGA MANI Pie as well as another, DJAMAL
Adam, prosecuted for possession and circulation of a panther skin, have all
been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, with five hundred thousand
(500,000) CFA francs in fines and five hundred thousand (500,000) CFA
francs in damages each.
Sieurs ENGOKO MATOUBOU Don and BOLIA MBEMBA Bovic, whose guilt has been
established in the case of the giant pangolin scales, will pay the
Congolese State a fine of five hundred thousand (500,000) f CFA and one
hundred thousand (100,000) f cfa damages each. The latter were found guilty
of possession and circulation of the scales of the giant pangolin, a fully
protected animal species.
The Ouesso Court of Appeal with these verdicts confirms the sentences that
were imposed on these six traffickers on July 27, 2019, by the Tribunal de
Grande Instance of Impfondo. As a reminder, the appeal was lodged by these
traffickers, just after their convictions at first instance.
It was about a network of traffickers of wildlife products in which there
are two Central Africans, three Congolese from the DRC and one Congolese
from the Republic of Congo.
The products seized came from the DRC for some and the localities of the
Department of Likouala for others.
Each of them in this traffic had a well-defined role: direct sellers,
sellers, carriers. They were arrested by agents of the Departmental
Directorate of Forest Economy and elements of the
national gendarmerie with the support of the PALF (Support Project for the
Application of the Law on Wildlife).
These verdicts from the Ouesso Court of Appeal once again reflect the will
of the Congo, which is committed to protecting its natural resources in
accordance with the texts regulating this sector.
The elephant, the panther and the giant pangolin are part of the animal
species fully protected in the Republic of Congo. Article 27 of the
Congolese law on the protection of these wildlife species stipulates:
“importation; export; the detention and transit on national territory of
fully protected species; as well as their trophies are strictly prohibited;
except special dispensation from the administration of water and forests;
for the needs of scientific research”.