APD | Indonesia fails orangutan smuggling attempt through flight

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

JAKARTA, March 24 (APD) -- Indonesia’s Bali airport authorities have failed an attempt to smuggle an orangutan conducted by a Russian national, bringing the perpetrator to face legal process that carries a sentence of 3 years punishment.

The airport’s aviation security guards found a sedated baby orangutan stashed inside a bamboo-weaved basket carried by a Russian passenger after conducting a screening procedure prior to the flight.

Along with the baby orangutan, the aviation security guards also found sedative drug, a syringe, a gecko and a lizard in the basket.

The Russian national, identifies as AZ, was scheduled to fly back to Russia with an international flight with stopover in South Korea on 22.30 p.m. local time on Friday.

In an interrogation conducted by airport authorities, AZ said he bought the male baby orangutan aged 2 years old in Java with a price of US$ 300.  

He planned to inject the orangutan with the sedative drug while the flight stopovers in South Korea to make the orangutan sleep along the flight to Russia.

“Orangutan is a protected animal here. He also tried to smuggle the gecko and lizard. He carries the live animals without any official necessary documents. We will keep all of those live animals,” Head of Bali’s Denpasar Quarantine Office I Putu Terunanegara said on Saturday.

The Russian national was brought to a police station for further legal process related to his attempt to smuggle live protected animals from Indonesia.

Indonesia legal authorities may charge the Russian national with violation on national quarantine law that carries a sentence of 3 years imprisonment and 150 million rupiah (around US$ 10,500) of fine.

Population of orangutan in Indonesian jungles has been drastically decreasing due to massive expansion of plantations in their habitats in the forest.

According to a report issued by International Union for Conservation in 2016, population of orangutans was roughly stood at 100,000 in Indonesian forests with threats on their livelihood remains continue in the wild.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)