A mozambican citizen, André Mariano Baridi, 31, from Mueda District, was sentenced yesterday by the Judicial Court of Cabo Delgado Province to 16 years, accused of crimes against wildlife committed in the Niassa Special Reserve (NSR), in 2020.
André Baridi (in the middle)
The trial held on 25th March this year was based on the indictment of the crime of poaching in the form of attempted trapping. The citizen was captured carrying hunting implements and mechanical traps for large animals when he was leaving a poachers' camp, following a trail of motorbikes and bicycles. At the same time of the arrest the individual was in the company of a friend, also a poacher, and even took off after sighting NSR rangers.
The citizen will serve his sentence in Cabo Delgado Provincial Penitentiary, in Mieze, and this is the second conviction case in the current year, and in the first case the defendant was tried in absent on 18th March 2021, in a case of illegal logging.
One of the factors that dictated the success of this process was the good preparation of the case from the capture of the citizen to the oral sustaining, argument and trial hearing.
NSR covers 6 districts of the Niassa province and 2 districts of the Cabo Delgado province, in a total area of 42,000 km2.