PN Palembang Vonis Cat Seller Kuwuk 2.5 Years In Prison

PALEMBANG - The woman selling four kuwuk / jungle cats was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and a fine of Rp. 100 million.

The presiding judge Said Husein, the defendant Giofani Mega Putri (23), was proven to have violated Article 40 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 21 paragraph (2) letter a Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 5 of 1990 concerning Conservation of Living Natural Resources and Their Ecosystems.

"It is incriminating that the defendant traded a protected animal in the form of four living kuwuk (forest) cats," Said said during the trial at Palembang District Court as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, February 17.

The verdict was slightly lower than the demands of the Palembang Prosecutor's Office for which the defendant was sentenced to three years in prison. In the sentencing trial, the judge considered mitigating matters, namely the defendant regretted his actions.

Defendant Geofani, accompanied by a legal advisor from Posbankum PN Palembang, stated that he accepted the verdict and was ready to serve the sentence.

Geofani was previously arrested by the Palembang Police, in October 2020, when he was going to sell four kuwuk cats via Facebook for IDR 400,000 per animal.

During the trial, the defendant admitted that he had often traded various protected animals using Facebook as a platform for transactions around the Palembang area since 2017.

The defendant also sold several protected animals, such as the ungko gibbon (Hylobates agilis), the binturung civet (Artcistic binturong), the gibbon gibbon (Symphalangus syndactylus) and finally planned to sell the kuwuk cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) before being arrested.

The defendant obtained the animals from Facebook groups, then resold them via Facebook with a price difference of more than 50 percent.