Medan, Ekuatorial – Limited authority to apprehend illegal wildlife traders had caused civil servant investigators losing fights against the crime as culprits were easily released by the police, said P. Turnip, civil servant investigator coordinator of Leuser Mountain National Park, on Monday (29/6).
Turnip cited recent case of two men, Zamaas and Albab, arrested for allegedly hunting down endangered hornbill birds, or known locally as burung Enggang, for its beaks in Leuser Mountain National Park.
During their arrests on mid June, investigators found 12 hornbill beaks in Zamaas’ house. He was suspected of illegally hunting these birds for more than ten years.
“We have confiscated 12 beaks worth of Rp 12 million (US$ 899), two modified rifles for hunting and two cell phones. We will conduct further investigations,” said head of Stabat Regional III National Park Management, Sapto Aji Prabowo.
Prabowo said that both suspects have been long targeted by investigators also as buyers from other hunters coming from Subussalam and Kutacane of Aceh.
They have been named as suspects but North Sumatra police did not detain them. As a result, one of them, Albab was released on Rp 100 million (US$ 7,495) bail.
“They have paid the bail and we already handed it to the office treasury. [However], that’s not for detention suspension because we [civil servant investigators] are not authorized to detain suspects. The money is just for guarantee that they’ll be cooperative,” said Turnip.
Furthermore, he said that they had coordinated with North Sumatra police for the suspects to be detained in the precinct but was declined.
“We cannot detain [illegal wildlife traders] because we have no authority to make the arrest. The police used to want [detain the suspects] but lately, they rejected,” he said. “Other police still want to accept and detain these criminals but North Sumatra had been declining our request for detention.”
Meanwhile, Irma Hermawati of Wildlife Crime Unit, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), said that it was very unfortunate that they released one man on bail as he can be indicted as accomplish.
“This has happened to other cases. They were not involved [in the hunting] but they provide help. Civil servant investigators should be able to coordinate with the police and charge him with illegal guns possession. Emergency Law can be applied [to this case]. So, what’s the reason for his release?” said Hermawati adding that Zamaas’ files have been handed over to the district attorney office and hoped can be detained immediately.
Related to civil servant investigators, Hermawati said that the 1990 Law on Conservation had been more loose compare to other forestry regulations, especially the 1999 Law on Forestry and the 2013 Law on Preventing and Eradicating Forest Destruction.
“That is why the revised law on conservation needs to give more authority to civil servant investigations to make arrest and detain culprits,” she said. Mei.