14 DAY TRIAL // Ousame Diallo, a smuggler guilty of trafficking some 500 endangered chimps, has recently been sentenced to one year in prison by authorities in the Republic of Guinea.
Two of his accomplices will accompany him behind bars and keep him company for the entire duration of his stay.
If you're thinking these men deserved being made to spend way more than just one year in prison, you're right.
Still, it looks like wildlife trafficking is not considered a very big deal in West Africa, at least not for the time being. Hence the fact that people guilty of such crimes more often than not don't get punished.
According to Mongabay, the folks at the World Wildlife Fund and anti-wildlife trafficking group GALF believe that the Republic of Guinea's decision to put Ousame Diallo behind bars is proof enough that the country is taking steps towards getting behind efforts to safeguard biodiversity.
“This time the result is excellent, we arrested one of biggest ape traffickers and we obtained one year in prison against him, the most severe penalty under Guinean law for this type of offense. It is a historic decision,” conservationist Charlotte Houpline says.