Arrest of wildlife traffickers

Notably, Tran Manh Hung has been arrested and fined many times by authorities for illegally transporting, trading and advertising wildlife, but he still showed contempt for the law and continued to openly advertise and trade wildlife on social networking sites before his arrest.

From August 2017 until the time of his recent arrest, the Center for Education for Nature (ENV) recorded the subject posting and selling hundreds of wild animals including golden mountain turtles, pig-tailed macaques, long-tailed macaques and other wild animal products such as bear claws and elephant tusks on social media accounts.

Images of wildlife trafficking on cyberspace by Hung

Currently, the authorities are carrying out the necessary procedures to prosecute the subject according to the provisions of Article 234 of the Penal Code 2015 (Amended and supplemented in 2017) because this subject was previously administratively sanctioned for violating wildlife laws in October 2022 but continued to violate.

Ms. Bui Thi Ha - Deputy Director, ENV shared: “ENV welcomes the efforts of the authorities of Ham Thuan Nam district in arresting and handling this professional wildlife trader on the Internet. The ability to easily access customers and high profits have caused many subjects like Tran Manh Hung to disregard the provisions of the law to advertise and trade wildlife on the internet. However, with increasingly strict legal regulations, the authorities are also continuing to show an "uncompromising" attitude towards this type of violation. ENV hopes that the arrest and strict handling of Hung in accordance with the provisions of the law in the coming time will be a profound warning to this subject and other subjects who are advertising and trading wildlife on the internet.”

The process of violation and handling of subject Tran Manh Hung:

· January 2022: Tran Manh Hung was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the People's Court of Dong Da District (Hanoi City) for illegally trading an individual gibbon.

· April 2022: Hanoi People's Court accepted the appeal, giving Tran Manh Hung a suspended sentence, with a probation period of 36 months.

· On October 26, 2022, Ham Thanh Commune Police (Ham Thuan Nam District, Binh Thuan Province) coordinated with Ham Thuan Nam District Forest Rangers to catch a subject red-handed illegally transporting 8 pig-tailed macaques and 1 palm civet. The subject was then administratively fined 15 million VND.

· In 2023, Tran Manh Hung was administratively sanctioned for advertising the sale of wild animals on social networks.

In the first 9 months of 2023 alone, ENV recorded more than 1,400 cases of advertising and trading wildlife on the Internet, accounting for about 50% of the total number of cases with signs of wildlife violations recorded by ENV on the Database during the same period.

Faced with the complicated situation of illegal advertising and trading of wildlife on the Internet, on July 23, 2020, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 29/CT-TTg on a number of urgent solutions to manage wildlife, emphasizing the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Security in "checking and handling acts of illegal advertising and trading of wildlife specimens on electronic information sites".

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