The Taichung District Court last week sentenced an undocumented Vietnamese migrant worker to eight years and two months in prison for illegally hunting and selling a stray cat and an endangered leopard cat.
The defendant, Ban Khac Hiep, was convicted of contravening the Firearms, Ammunition and Knives Control Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法).
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
He was also fined NT$240,000.
The ruling can be appealed.
Ban absconded from his legal place of work in October 2020 and later made a homemade hunting gun, which he used to hunt wildlife illegally for profit in March and April last year, prosecutors said.
He enlisted the help of an accomplice, Pham Van Cuong, to arrange the sale of the animals, prosecutors said.
On March 13 last year, Ban killed a stray cat and sold it through Pham to a buyer, with the two together reaping NT$1,500 in proceeds.
Ban shot and killed a leopard cat — a protected species in Taiwan — on April 19 last year, and again asked Pham to find a buyer.
The following day, Pham's Vietnamese girlfriend, surnamed Nguyen, delivered the leopard cat carcass to a buyer and collected NT$3,000.
Nguyen later received deferred prosecution, while Pham was sentenced in November last year to one year in prison for contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act.
Police investigating the case attempted to arrest Ban on June 4 last year at a makeshift structure in Taichung's Sinshe District (新社).
Officers said Ban aimed his modified firearm at them and fled while they withdrew to seek backup.
He was later apprehended and indicted.
In its ruling handed down on Wednesday last week, the court said that leopard cats are a rare and protected species in Taiwan, and that Ban showed disregard for animal life by killing and selling both a stray cat and protected wildlife.
The court said the offenses were serious and warranted a substantial sentence.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS