Orangutan trader jailed

Orangutan trader jailed

TOKYO: A director of a pet shop in Osaka, Japan was sentenced to 32 months in jail after he was found guilty of illegally buying four endangered orangutans from Indonesia.

The defendant, identified as Hiroharu Kaito, 40, was also ordered by the Osaka District Court to pay a fine amounting to 2.5 million yen (Rp 225,000,000), an Antara correspondent reported from Tokyo on Friday.

According to the verdict, Kaito bought the four orangutans at 1.85 million yen in December, 1998, and April, 1999, without knowing that the primates were illegally imported from Indonesia.

Kaito was also proven guilty of illegally buying three of the endangered animals in September and October, 1998.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), orangutans are prohibited from trade. -- Antara