The Jakarta Post 24 Mar 16;
The Pekanbaru District Court sentenced on Wednesday Ali Ahmad and Awaluddin for two and a half years and Khairi Roza for two years in prison for trading orangutans.
Presiding judge HAS Pudjoharsoyo said Khairi received a lighter sentence because he was not directly involved in the trade of the protected species as he was just the driver of the car rented by the other convicts.
The police arrested them last November in Riau, seizing three orangutan babies.
The three orangutans are now in the care of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program in Sibolangit district in Deli Serdang regency, North Sumatra. Wishnu Sukmantoro, the Sumatra program manager at WWF Indonesia, was satisfied with the verdict as it was heavier than verdicts handed down to previous illegal traders in Riau in the last 10 years.
