TANZANIA: Court slams Chinese ‘Ivory Queen’ with 15-yr jail term

Chinese businesswoman Yang Fenglan, 69, will now spend the next 15-years behind bars after a court in Tanzania found her guilty of smuggling about 860 elephant tusks over several years to Asia.

Labeled the “Ivory Queen”, Yang Fenglan had been charged in October 2015 along with two Tanzanian men with smuggling about 860 pieces of ivory worth 13bn shillings ($5.6m) over several years to Asia.

In court documents, prosecutors said Yang “intentionally did organise, manage and finance a criminal racket by collecting, transporting or exporting and selling government trophies” weighing a total of 1,889 tonnes.

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The trio were handed15-year sentences by Kisutu Court Magistrate Huruma Shaidi on Tuesday following their convictions of leading an organised criminal gang with all three denying the charges leveled against them.

The ruling against Yang Fenglan has been welcomed by conservationists who say it was proof of the government’s seriousness in the fight against wildlife poaching, but some criticised the sentence.

“[It] is not punishment enough for the atrocities she committed, by being responsible for the poaching of thousands of elephants in Tanzania,” Amani Ngusaru, WWF country director, told Reuters news agency.

“She ran a network that killed thousands of elephants.”

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