Almost all poachers in Kyrgyzstan get conditional sentence

In 2016, 12 people were convicted for poaching in Kyrgyzstan, but all of them got conditional sentence, the Director of the Department for Protection and Use of Natural Resources Almaz Musayev stated at the meeting of civil activists with the leadership of the State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry.

According to him, at present, there are two houses on the balance of the department — in Aksy and At-Bashy districts. «These houses and plots were seized by the court decision from citizens convicted of poaching," Almaz Musayev said.

However, according to the official, as for catching and punishing poachers, there are gaps in the legislation, which violators use.

Recently detained poachers say that they didn’t kill, but just found the body of the animal on the way.

Almaz Musayev

According to him, they sent a draft to the Ministry of Justice proposing to increase penalties at times, as well as to tighten the punishment for storage, transportation and processing of wild animals of any kind.

«We need to openly say that when poachers are detained, they offer bribes on the spot. And, despite this, they hand over violators to the law enforcement bodies. But, first of all, our employees are called for questioning… They ask: did you see how he shot? And so on," Almaz Musayev said.

He said that they also constantly monitor social networks to detect violators of environmental legislation.