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A Japanese court on Wednesday jailed a Chinese skipper for coral poaching in what was reportedly the first such punishment since the coastguard began reporting waves of illegal boats.
Fang Dongbing, 46, was sentenced to a year in prison and fined 10 million yen after being found guilty of illegally harvesting coral in waters near the Izu island chain, some 600 km south of Tokyo, in December.
Prosecutors had sought 18 months in prison and a 15 million yen fine, after Japan revised its laws on illegal fishing, tripling the maximum fine for poaching to 30 million yen last year.
"The defendant's attitude of belittling the rule of law cannot be tolerated," said Yokohama District Court presiding judge Ben Adachi, Jiji Press reported.
© (c) 2015 AFP
11 Comments
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Moonraker
Good.
trinklets2
I just wish that my home country, the Phils, has that fist to do the same.
DaDude
They would do the same to a Japanese skipper if the shoe was on the other foot and they would never debate about souring relations.
upintheair
Sweet. Very sweet.
iskysong
Guess what????
If this Chinaman is caught in Australia for coral rigging, then the China Government will not make noise because Australia is known to be extremely strict on conservation but unfortunately this happened in Japan and the China Government will surely take every opportunity to make a BIG HUHA HUHA on it.......expected anyway!!!
commanteer
I doubt China will make a fuss about this. They have problems with these poachers within their borders as well. They can't support the skipper without suggesting support for what are criminal activities even under Chinese law.
nath
Death would have been too kind for someone pillaging a protected area, if you ask me. The coral are finite unless you are willing to wait a couple of thousand years.
sandiegoluv
I wish he would get many more years in jail. Japan needs to up the punishment for this behavior.
G.MAL.O.Q
i'd use him as shark bait...
sensei258
Poach coral, get jail time. Abuse your children, get suspended sentence. What's wrong with this picture?
drakedogma
You can never defeat the Coral Industrial Complex, or Big C