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FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only.[ File photo: Twitter / @HelpingRhinos]
The Skukuza Regional Court in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province on 5 November sentenced two Mozambican rhino poachers to jail terms of sixteen years each.
The two were arrested on 24 February during an operation to apprehend three armed suspects in the Kruger National Park and they were later identified as Jordan Samuel Mathonsi and Gorge Masangu. At the scene, the rangers confiscated a hunting rifle along with ammunition and two rhino horns. A third culprit escaped.
Following a trial, the Skukuza Regional Court sentenced the accused to three years imprisonment for trespass, one year for illegal immigration, ten years for poaching, five years for possession of an unlicensed firearm, two years for possession of unlicensed ammunition, and six years for possession of a prohibited firearm (with no serial number). Once concurrent sentences are taken into account this comes to a sentence of sixteen years for each of the culprits.
The South Africa Police service welcomed the sentencing and congratulated the work of the Skukuza Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit. The provincial police commissioner, Lt Gen Semakaleng Manamela, stated “I am delighted and impressed by the hard work displayed by these members. They should keep it up so that we can save and protect our endangered species”.
This was the third case in the space of a fortnight, in which South African courts sentenced Mozambican poachers to long prison terms.
On 21 October the Mogwase Regional Court in North West province on Thursday sentenced three Mozambican nationals, charged with killing three female rhinos, possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of ammunition, and possession of six rhino horns to an effective 35 years in prison.
The following day, the Skukuza regional court sentenced another three poachers, one of them a Mozambican, to prison sentences totalling 105 years for killing rhinos in the Kruger National Park.
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