Lima Terdakwa Pembunuh Gajah Divonis 3,5 tahun Penjara
Indonesian court sends to jail elephant poacher and traders
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
MAJELIS Hakim Pengadilan Negeri Idi, Kabupaten Aceh Timur memvonis tiga setengah tahun penjara kepada lima terdakwa pembunuh gajah Sumatera tanpa kepala di Aceh Timur, Rabu [15/12].
Jainal, pemburu gading yang membunuh gajah dan memenggal kepalanya, bersama Edy Murdani, pria yang dituding sebagai tempat penjualan gading pertama, divonis tiga setengah tahun penjara dengan denda Rp50 juta.
Tiga pelaku lainnya - Rinaldi Antonius, Soni dan Jeffri Zulkarnaen - diidentifikasi sebagai pedagang gading, dan menghadapi tiga tahun penjara dan denda Rp100 juta.
Gajah tersebut ditemukan mati tanpa kepala pada 11 Juli di sebuah perkebunan kelapa sawit di Aceh Timur, yang dirilis Polda Aceh Timur bekerja sama dengan Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam Aceh untuk menyelidiki kematian tersebut, seperti dikutip Associated Press yang dilansir MailOnline.
Hasil nekropsi menyebutkan gajah jantan mati setelah diracun.
Polisi menangkap lima tersangka pada Agustus lalu, berawal dari pemburu gajah bernama Jainal alias Zainon dan Dekgam.
Polisi menangkap Jainal pada 10 Agustus yang mengaku telah mencoba membunuh gajah lima kali sejak 2017 dengan meracuni mereka, tetapi hanya berhasil dua kali, termasuk kematian baru-baru ini. Pada 19 Juli, dia dan rekannya meracuni mangga di dekat kawanan gajah liar dan mengeksekusi gajah yang lemah dua jam kemudian dengan kapak, katanya kepada polisi. Rekannya masih buron.
Pemburu mengatakan dia menjual gading itu kepada pedagang Edy Murdani di Aceh Timur, yang menjualnya ke empat pembeli di provinsi Aceh dan Jawa Barat. Pembeli terakhir, Rinaldi Antonius, seorang pengrajin di Jawa Barat, membuat gading menjadi keris dan pipa rokok.
Dalam tujuh tahun terakhir, 46 gajah mati telah ditemukan di Aceh, provinsi paling barat Indonesia. Banyak yang dikaitkan dengan perburuan ilegal dan konflik dengan manusia.
Kepala Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam Aceh, Agus Arianto mengatakan persidangan ini menunjukkan komitmen aparat penegak hukum untuk menghentikan perburuan gajah.
“Kita harus melakukan pencegahan agar hal yang sama tidak terjadi lagi di kemudian hari,” kata Arianto.
AN INDONESIAN court on Wednesday handed down prison sentences for five men accused of being involved in killing a Sumatran elephant and illegally trading its ivory, as local conservation authorities look to protect the endangered species.
The court in Aceh convicted the men of violating Indonesian laws protecting natural resources and their ecosystems.
Jainal, the poacher who killed the elephant and cut off its head, along with Edy Murdani, a man accused of being the first point of sale for the ivory, were both sentenced to three and a half years in prison with a fine of 50 millions rupiah ($3,487).
The other three perpetrators - Rinaldi Antonius, Soni and Jeffri Zulkarnaen - were identified as the ivory traders, and face three years in prison and a fine of 100 millions rupiah ($6,973).
The elephant was found dead on July 11 at a palm plantation in East Aceh, police said. Local police worked with the Aceh Natural Resource Conservation Center to investigate the death.
The necropsy results said that the male elephant died after being poisoned.
East Aceh Police arrested the five suspects in August, beginning with the elephant poacher, Jainal, who carries the aliases of Zainon and Dekgam.
Police arrested Jainal on Aug. 10 who admitted he had tried to kill elephants five times since 2017 by poisoning them, but had succeeded only twice, including the recent death. On July 19, he and a partner poisoned mangos near a herd of wild elephants and executed a weakened elephant two hours later with an axe, he told police. The partner is still on the run.
The poacher said he sold the ivory to trader Edy Murdani in East Aceh, who sold it to four buyers in Aceh and West Java provinces. The last buyer, Rinaldi Antonius, a craftsman in West Java, made the ivory into a dagger and cigarette pipe.
In the last seven years, 46 dead elephants have been found in Aceh, Indonesia´s westernmost province. Many were attributed to illegal hunting and conflicts with humans.
Indonesian forestry and environment ministry´s data showed the Sumatran elephant population has shrunk from 1,300 in 2014 to 693, down nearly 50% in the past seven years.
Agus Arianto, chief of Aceh Natural Resource Conservation Center, said that the trial showed the commitment of law enforcement officers to end elephant poaching.
"We have to do prevention so the same thing would not happen in the future," Arianto said.
Sumatran elephants are a subspecies of the Asian elephant, one of two species of the large mammal in the world.
