In a recent murder trial in Uganda, the three accused killers were fined the equivalent of $19 each. The victim was a mountain gorilla named Mizano.
On 17th June 2011, poachers entered Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Park with hunting dogs and killed a blackback mountain gorilla with a spear that penetrated its lung. The blackback was the heir to the only silverback in his family. The poachers were looking for antelope caught in snares they had set earlier.
The following day, police dogs lead the investigation team to a neighboring community where they found the three suspects.
The presiding magistrate in the case said that prosecution had failed to produce enough evidence that the three actually killed the gorilla. The magistrate also noted that no DNA test was carried out to link the blood samples found on the panga and spear picked from one of the suspects’ house to the blood sample of the dead gorilla. This however, is despite the fact that the doctors who carried out the post mortem were never invited to give their testimony in court.
One suspect was convicted on two counts including entering a protected area without authority and possession of illegal devices capable of killing wildlife species. He was fined the equivalent of $19. The other two suspects were each convicted on one count of trying to escape arrest after running away on seeing police. They were each given the same fine.
The Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) issued a statement yesterday expressing their dismay at the ruling:
“Uganda Wildlife Authority is greatly dismayed by the light sentence that was handed down by court to the three men that were arrested for the murder of a mountain gorilla. Although we will not appeal the sentence, we express our shock in the strongest terms and we will be bringing up this issue with the Office of the Chief Justice. Conservation in Uganda continues to face the challenge of having judiciary officials that do not fully appreciate the value of wildlife to the country, and are therefore ready to hand down light sentences to suspects.”
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