Six months jail for duo in Malaysia’s first rhino horn conviction
It was one of Malaysia’s most significant rhino horn seizures – 50 whole horns and pieces, declared as lobsters and hidden in the cab of a truck that was stopped not far from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after a dramatic chase in September 2021. Now the two men in the truck will serve six months in jail after a court found them guilty of illegally keeping the contraband in the country’s first trial involving trafficked African rhino horns.
Mohamad Sukry Wahab and Muhammad Hafiszan Naser faced two charges under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010: one for possession of 49 White Rhino Ceratotherium simum horn pieces without a special permit, and a second charge for a single piece of horn from the Critically Endangered Black Rhino Diceros bicornis.
On October 15, they were found guilty of both charges and given six months of jail for each offence, with the court ordering the two jail terms to run simultaneously.
The men had faced a maximum fine of MYR100,000 (USD 20,930) and up to three years in jail for each of the charges. These charges were brought before the law was amended in 2022. The same offence now carries heavier fines.
Judge Ahmad Fuad Othman said when delivering his sentence at the Sepang Sessions Court today said that he had initially considered only fining the two accused but decided on a jail sentence because of the gravity of the case.
Ahmad also spoke of the need to ensure justice for wildlife when delivering his sentence.
"In the history of rhino horn seizures in Malaysia this is the first case that resulted in a conviction. From that respect we congratulate the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia on the win in court today."
Kanitha Krishnasamy, Director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia
“While this conviction is welcome, the penalties issued were too low to serve as an effective deterrent. Low penalties risk emboldening traffickers who see them as a cost of doing business. Malaysia must ensure that future convictions match the severity of this serious crime and the scale of its role in the global rhino horn trade."
By comparison, in 2021, a court in Viet Nam issued a record 14-year jail sentence to a local man for trading and trafficking 55 pieces of rhino horns from the United Arab Emirates.
More recently in February 2024, a Singapore court issued the maximum jail term of two years to a South African national convicted for illegally transporting 20 pieces of rhino horn into the country in October 2022.
“With both accused employed in airport cargo acceptance and transport at the time, the case spotlights how the logistics industry can enable wildlife trafficking and why transport sector regulators must give this greater scrutiny,” Krishnasamy said.
Southeast Asia’s role in international rhino horn trafficking
Southeast Asian countries frequently turn up in the international rhino trade chain as transit and destination countries.
But cases like these are of great consequence for Malaysia which is today the second most affected country globally for this trade, with significant shipments destined here, according to the most recent report commissioned by the CITES Secretariat for the 20th Conference of the Parties¹.
The finding underscores the need for much stronger enforcement and follow-through investigations especially to weed out those operating within its borders.
“Every rhino horn seized represents another animal brutally killed. Malaysia has a responsibility, not only to enforce its laws, but to ensure it is not used as a safe passage for this devastating trade,” said Krishnasamy.
Malaysia, which has no open market for rhino horn products, was linked to several significant rhino horn smuggling attempts from South Africa involving a total of 362kg of rhino horns between 2021 and 2023.
South Africa remains the world’s top country from which rhinos are poached for their horns, and thereafter trafficked to destinations worldwide, Asia being a prominent one.The last recorded rhino horn seizure in Malaysia was of 29kg of rhino horns (14 horns and pieces) in a shipment containing a multitude of wildlife parts at Port Kelang in July 2022. No arrest was made.
Notes:
1. African and Asian Rhinoceroses – Status, Conservation and Trade. Commissioned by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) pursuant to Resolution Conf. 9.14 (Rev. CoP19). Report prepared by the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group, Asian Rhino Specialist Groups and TRAFFIC.
