http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Mozambican-poachers-get-16-year-sentences-20110602

Mozambican poachers get 16-year sentences

2011-06-02 19:09

Johannesburg - Two Mozambicans who were found with rhino horns in the Kruger National Park were sentenced to a total of 16 years imprisonment by the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court, the NPA said on Thursday.

"Frans Makamu and Solomon Makhabo were convicted of trespassing, illegal hunting of rhino and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition," National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said.

Makamu was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and Makhabo to five years on Wednesday, with no possibility of suspension.

The sentencing came after they were arrested with two others in separate incidents last year.

"During the arrests, the four were granted bail but two of them have since skipped bail and police are still trying to locate them," Mhaga said.

Police managed to link the DNA of seized horns to the DNA of a carcass in the park. It was revealed during the trial that the men had been sent by a Mozambican national to hunt the rhinos and remove their horns.

The NPA said that as a result of an alarming rise in rhino poaching, the director of public prosecutions, Menzi Simelane, had assigned twenty prosecutors to focus on rhino cases.

- SAPA