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A 10-year jail sentence has been given to a Vietnamese man who attempted to smuggle rhino horns out of South Africa.
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The Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a Vietnamese man to 10 years in jail for attempting to smuggle rhino horns from South Africa to Vietnam.
Rhino DNA match
According to Eyewitness News, security guard Xuan Hoang traveled to South Africa in March to collect seven rhino horns, weighing 16 kilograms and worth R900,000. His plan was to return to Vietnam with the rhino horns.
The horns were found to be a DNA match to rhinos that had been killed just a few days earlier.
A ‘strong message needs to be sent to Vietnam’
Magistrate Prince Manyathi said a fine would not be enough to deter the rhino poaching scourge and ignored the defense’s request for mercy, adding that a “strong message needs to be sent to Vietnam”.
The most recent research done by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC found that the majority of rhino horn leaving South Africa is destined for consumer markets in China and Vietnam.
Although rhino horn has been extensively analyzed and found to have no medicinal value, persistent cultural myths and superstitions in China and Vietnam attribute “healing powers” to rhino horn.
Source: Eyewitness News
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See Rhino Horn is Not Medicine for more information.
