VietNamNet Bridge – Besides three soldiers, four civilians have been identified involved in killing rare monkeys in the Central Highlands.

Wave of indignation raised against the monkey killer

Soldier defined to uploading cruel pictures of killing endangered monkey

These people appeared in pictures featuring two langurs being ill-treated and killed, which were posted on Facebook by soldier Nguyen Van Quang, 20, last week.

According to HCM City Law Newspaper, two of the four civilians directly involved in selling and killing the monkeys.

On July 19, investigative unit of the Military Corp. 3 summoned Quang and two other soldiers for investigation.

The soldiers declared that they did not directly trap the monkeys. They bought the monkeys from some local people and asked these people to slaughter the animals. During the slaughtering process, Quang and two other soldiers maltreated and took pictures to post on Quang’s Facebook page.

The three soldiers have not been officially punished but their act seriously broke the army rules and the law on wildlife protection.

In the worst case, Quang may lose his army rolls and be judged at the military court.

Under the Vietnamese law, people who catch, torture and kill langurs may be fined from VND50-500 million ($250-25,000), be sentenced from 6 months to 3 years in prison or up to three years’ probation.

Minh Duc