By Olivia Miwil - July 14, 2021 @ 2:43pm
TAWAU: The perpetrators of the brutal killing of a male Borneo pgymy elephant at Sungai Udin here, have finally been sentenced for their crime.
The Sessions Court here sentenced Martin Alok, 46, to a four year imprisonment starting from the date of remand on October 4, 2019.
Upon serving the sentence, the unrepresented Indonesian would be referred to the Immigration Department for deportation.
Yesterday, the accused pleaded guilty before judge Awang Kerisnada Awang Mahmud for the charge under Section 41(1) of Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 for the offence of possessing a fully protected animal and animal parts.
Three other accused - Paranchoi Nordin, 61 Abdullah Simin. 70 and Jaifol Liun, 54 - were discharged but not amounting to an acquittal.
On Sept 25, 2019, a group of anglers found the elephant carcass without tusks tied to a tree on a river bank and post mortem revealed the elephant in its 30s was shot at close range about 70 times.
On Oct 2, 2019, following a police report, a team of personnel from here and Bombalai detained the four men at Felda Umas 4 and Kampung Felda Umas Kalabakan under Ops Khazanah.
Based on the facts of the case, Paranchoi and Abdullah had admitted they shot the elephant of which both were sentenced to two years of jail under the Firearms Act in 2019.
Abdullah was present when Paranchoi and Martin were mutilating and burying the tusks.
Jaifol, who is the Felda plantation manager, had reimbursed the cost of the bullets to Abdullah and instructed them to shoot to the air to chase the elephant should other methods not work.
Despite knowing about the incident on Sept 24, 2019 at 3pm, he failed to report it to the authorities.
Jaifol was charged under Section 40 of Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 for failing to surrender parts of the Borneo Elepehant which is categorised as a total protected species.
Paranchoi and Abdullah were represented by Kamarudin Mohmad Chinki while Jaifol was represented by counsel Mohamed Zairi Zainal Abidin.
The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Hurman Hussain and assisted by DPP Kershanathan Pathmanathan.
As for the RM20,000 rewards to whistleblowers, Sabah Wildlife director Augustine Tuuga said the rewards had been awarded.
"The rewards which comprises RM10,000 from the Sabah Wildlife Department and another RM10,000 from the UK Orangutan Appeal," he said, adding it was given to informant(s) early last year or end of 2019.
Since 2010, there have been over 100 deaths of pygmy Borneo elephants due to poaching and diseases.
Based on the 2006 census, there were about 2,000 members of the species left in the wild.
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