Poaching accuse brothers linked to more cases
Tony Carnie
September 01 2006 at 07:41AM

The Bronkhorstspruit brothers arrested for slaughtering rhinos in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park are being kept in police custody after investigators linked them to nearly 10 other rhino horn poaching cases elsewhere in the country.

Some of the horns are alleged to have been poached around the Kruger National Park and provincial or private reserves in Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Gideon Gerhardus van Deventer, 38, and his brother, Nicolaas Brand van Deventer, 35, were caught red-handed at Imfolozi last week - by a joint team from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and the police's Organised Crime Unit - with hunting rifles and four horns, severed from the carcasses of two freshly killed adult white rhino bulls.



Investigators told The Mercury on Thursday night that the brothers had appeared briefly in court in Bronkhorstspruit earlier this week, but they would also appear in the Hlabisa Magistrate's Court on Friday or Monday.

Several other people have been arrested in various parts of the country in the wake of the Van Deventer arrests.

The prosecution team has not been finalised yet, but Rob Mortassagne, a Durban-based specialist environmental crimes prosecutor, said on Thursday that the brothers could face penalties of R200 000 or 10 years in jail for each count of hunting without a permit under KZN's Nature Conservation Ordinance.

Rhinos are a specially protected species locally and internationally because of a continent-wide horn poaching spree over recent decades.

Apart from firearm licence offences, several other charges could be added to the list, including more technical offences such as deviating from a designated tourist road and getting out of their vehicles in a game reserve.

Mortassagne said they could also be charged with conspiracy if the rhino horns had been destined for export, while they could also be held liable for the full legal costs of a trial under the National Environmental Management Act, and be required to compensate Ezemvelo for the loss of the animals, which had a game auction value about R100 000 each.

"I would think that they will be up to their necks in this if a suitably qualified prosecution team can establish their guilt."

Meanwhile, police and conservation investigators have been collecting ballistic and other evidence following the alleged discovery of several guns in Bronkhorstspruit.

The Van Deventers were arrested last Tuesday near the Cengeni gate at Imfolozi while allegedly attempting to flee the park after killing two rhino bulls about 400m off a tourist road.

The brothers had been trailed from the moment they arrived in the park and then checked in overnight at the luxury Hilltop camp.

They had allegedly fitted false number plates to their bakkies and had supplied false identity numbers when checking into the park to cover their tracks.

tony.carnie@inl.co.za


This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on September 01, 2006

Get a Rope !

quote:

Originally posted by Ramrod:
Get a Rope !

You are far too kind to them