KUCHING, March 2: A man in Miri has been sentenced to imprisonment and fined for the illegal possession and sale of wildlife parts.
According to a statement from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) today, the sentence was handed down by Miri Sessions Court Judge, Puan Azreena Aziz, after the accused, Junilis Wesly, 48, pleaded guilty to all three charges against him.
For the first charge, he was found guilty under Section 37(2)(a) of the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 for possessing 17.58kg of deer meat in Pujut Corner Market, Miri, in 2023, without permission from the Wildlife Controller.
He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined RM2,000 (or one month in imprisonment if the fine is not paid).
For the second charge, he was convicted under Section 37(3) of the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 for selling deer meat and was fined RM10,000 (or four months imprisonment if the fine is not paid).
The penalty was doubled under Section 51 of the same Ordinance due to the accused’s previous arrest for violating the same law.
Additionally, the accused was charged under Section 29(2) of the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998 for possessing protected wildlife without a license, namely monkeys and civets at Pujut Corner Market.
He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined RM10,000 (or four months imprisonment if the fine is not paid) for possessing two carcasses of protected wildlife.
An arrest warrant was issued against the accused for failing to appear for the initial court mention.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ronald Felix Hardin handled the prosecution, while the accused was not represented by a lawyer.
As the accused failed to pay the fine, it was replaced with a prison sentence.
The prison sentences will run concurrently, starting from the date the sentence was read out. — DayakDaily
