VietNamNet Bridge – The three people who caught and brutally slaughtered three shanked langurs have been sentenced to 12-28 months in prison by the Sa Thay District People's Court in Kon Tum province.

From the left: Ha Van Tu, Ha Van Que, Bui Van Hung (Photo: QĐND)

The Sa Thay District People's Court has put on trial the case in which three men tortured, killed two rare langurs and then posted the photos on the Internet, causing public outrage in July 2012.

Ha Van Tu (38, Dak Lak), Ha Van Que (38, Gia Lai) and Bui Van Hung (36, Thanh Hoa) are defined as those who directly caught and killed the langurs.

For their violations of the provisions on the protection of endangered animals, the Panel sentenced Tu to 24 months, Que 28 months and Hung 12 months in prison.

On 11/07/2012, these people went into the forest in Chu Mo Ray commune, Sa Thay district, Kon Tum province for wildlife hunting together.

By noon, the group discovered a herd of langurs. They shot and killed two langurs and sold the animals to some army soldiers for VND1.2 million (around $60).

A soldier named Nguyen Van Quang, 20 years old, from Quang Nam province, of the Battalion 2, Regiment 7, Corps 3 posted langur killing photos on the Internet, causing public outrage.

Related to the incident, Quang and two other soldiers in the battalion were summoned for investigation. The Military Corp 3 on July 31 announced to revoke the soldier’s title of private first class Quang and sent him back home.

Some photos featuring cruel scenes posted on Quang's Facebook page on July 11, stirring up social anger.

The online community was in an outrage of pictures that show a group of young men abusing and then boiling two endangered monkeys, one of them pregnant.

In the images, the men bound the limbs of the pregnant monkey and forced it to smoke before posing eagerly with the carcasses.

Within hours of the Internet posting, animal rights advocates and others criticized the men and called them inhuman in more than 1,000 comments.

The monkeys are douc langurs (Pygathrix), which are listed in Vietnam’s Red Book of endangered and threatened species, according to Professor Vo Quy at the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental at the National University of Hanoi.

M.Duc