KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) 9/6/10 – A Malaysian was jailed for six months and fined 190,000 ringgit ($61,000) for trying to smuggle 95 snakes out of the country, a sentence that campaigners said was too light.
Anson Wong, already convicted of trafficking in wildlife in the United States in 2001, pleaded guilty last week and will start his sentence on Sept. 13.
Under Malaysian law, Wong could have faced seven years in jail and fines of up to 100,000 ringgit ($32,000) for each snake up to a maximum of a million ringgit or both.