A man in Kazakhstan was sentenced to prison for selling saiga horns. It was also stated that he was fined 5 million tenge (about 100 thousand rubles). Orda.kz.
A criminal case was opened against a 62-year-old native of Aktobe after an advertisement for the sale of horns of a critically endangered Red Book animal was found on the Internet.
The person involved stated that he found saiga horns screwed to a wooden base in the trash can. He dismantled them and put them up for sale. Police officers acted as receivers and detained the man. He was charged with illegal use of animal derivatives.
It was noted that the defendant was engaged in the sale of antiques from the USSR period. He finds some exhibits on the street, restores them and then puts them up for sale.
The advertisement for saiga horns hung online for six months before attracting the attention of the police.
The court sentenced the antique dealer to a fine of 5 million 175 thousand tenge as well as a restriction of liberty of 3 years and 6 months.
Saiga (margach or saiga) is an even-toed mammal from the subfamily of true antelopes. The species was classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2002. Initially, these ungulates lived in the steppes and semi-deserts of Eurasia over a wide area, from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and the Caucasus to Dzungaria and Mongolia. Now saigas live only in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and visit Turkmenistan, Russia (Kalmykia, Astrakhan region, Altai Republic, Volgograd region) and Western Mongolia.
Previously in Russia entry The law on multi-year prison sentences for collecting Red Book mushrooms came into force.