The district court of the district No. 61 of the city of Ussuriysk passed a verdict against the "trader" of the Amur tiger’s body parts under Article 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced 160 hours of compulsory labor.
According to the materials of the criminal case, the crime was committed in the summer of 2014 in the urban district of Ussuriysk. The defendant illegally purchased two ribs of an Amur tiger, which he kept at home. When transporting the body parts of the rare predator, the car was detained by police officers on the federal highway Khabarovsk-Vladivostok. During the search, the ribs were found and seized.
Body parts of various animals (bears, musk deer, trepangs, deer) have been seized in the house of the detainees. In addition, an Amur tiger’s skull and a saiga antelope’s horn were found. In accordance with the current legislation, the Amur tiger and saiga antelope are included in the list of particularly valuable wild animals and biological resources. These species are listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation and in regulated agreements of the Russian Federation for articles 226.1 and 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to these articles the punishment is imposed even for the very fact of keeping any part of the body before transporting it across the state border of Russia.
During the investigation the defendant fully admitted his guilt, therefore the criminal case was examined in a special order. It has not yet been established who illegally sold parts of animals to the defendant. The case will be executed separately.
"The sentences against persons engaged in the tiger poaching or the sale of its body parts are already becoming a tradition. This again reminds us that punishment for the killing of rare animals is inevitable. The convicted is a secondhand seller of animal and vegetable goods, and he did not disdain body parts of banned animals. If he were detained during a criminal deal with sellers or customers, the verdict would be tougher. In addition, thanks to this arrest, another trader of tigers’ body parts was arrested. A court verdict will be passed in the near future. - commented Sergei Aramilev, director of the Primorsky branch of the Amur Tiger Center, - During the search the police seized not only the body parts of representatives of the Far Eastern fauna. Dealers like him do not care about where to sell and to buy, they buy falcons in Kamchatka and sell them in Saudi Arabia, or sell antler saigas from Kalmykia in eastern China. "
The Amur Tiger Center invites you to watch "The Tiger's Trace" with Alexander Baluyev on December 21 at 20.45 on the NTV channel. The movie tells about the difficult joint fight of the police and hunting inspectors against criminal business. The shooting of the action movie was held with the support of the Amur Tiger Center in Vladivostok, Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.