By: Triambogo Andika Gupta

Bandung- The destruction of certain criminal evidence at the Bandung Police Headquarters on Tuesday, November 1, 2016 made the people around the location curious to see it. The dead and mostly preserved protected wildlife were confiscated by the National Police Headquarters together with the West Java BKSDA, West Java Regional Police and Bandung Police Station. The seizure took place at the residence of AS (51 years old) on Jalan Cibeunying Kolot, Sandang Serang Village, Coblong Subdistrict, Bandung City, West Java on September 23, 2016 at around 16.00 local time.

From the suspect's residence, Investigators of the Directorate of Tipidter Bareksrim Polri found AS storing and possessing dead animals and body parts of protected animals. The animals, most of which were already preserved, were confiscated on that day. From the suspect's statement, he explained that the protected wildlife in the form of offsets almost all came from the Bandung zoo, all of which did not have documents in the form of letters or minutes of animal death examination or SATS-DN transportation documents from BKSDA. Suspect AS has been conducting protected wildlife preservation activities since 1990 and usually the fee he gets for preserving protected wildlife ranges from Rp 150,000 - Rp 3,000,000 depending on the type and size of the animal.

The Destruction of Evidence activity was attended by the West Java Police Chief, the United States Ambassador to Indonesia, the West Java Attorney General's Office, environmental organizations. This activity was also opened with remarks by the Bandung Police Chief, the Head of the SDA Task Force of the AGO of the Republic of Indonesia, representatives of the United States Embassy and the Head of the West Java BBKSDA. "There are no recorded craftsmen who make animal offsets that have obtained official certificates, weak supervision patterns from stakeholders against license holders of conservation institutions and other special notes, namely the new modus operandi recorded in connection with the death of protected wildlife by a conservation institution without legal procedures for further entrusted to offset craftsmen where it is strongly suspected that there is a sale of preserved collections of conservation institutions, "according to the Bandung Police Chief in his speech.

The Head of West Java BBKSDA said in his speech, "the destruction of evidence must be destroyed until it really has no economic value, when the ash of destruction still has economic value then the ash must still be destroyed". A total of 38 types of Protected Wildlife were destroyed such as, 4 offset Sumatran tigers, 1 offset jungle cat, 2 offset sun bears, 1 piece of offset sun bear head, 1 offset binturong, 1 offset hawksbill turtle, 4 offset birds of paradise, 2 offset black-headed parrots, 2 offset red parrots, 2 pieces of deer antlers, 1 offset cassowary, 2 offset peacocks, 2 offset eagles, 1 piece of Sumatran tiger skin, 1 piece of Sumatran tiger tail, 9 bear hooves, 2 pieces of estuarine crocodile skin, 1 siamang skin, 2 Javan gibbon skins, 1 molukensis cockatoo skin, 3 yellow-crested cockatoo skins, 1 king cockatoo skin, 1 hornbill skin, 1 king parrot skin, 1 bird of paradise skin, 2 parrot skins, 1 nias parrot skin, 1 alapap-alap bird skin, 1 cassowary bird skin, 3 deer skins, 1 jungle cat skin, 1 deer skin, 1 loris skin, 3 timor deer skins, 1 yaki macaque skin, 1 piece of timor deer skin, 4 turtle skins.

According to WWF Indonesia's Wildlife Crime Team, Novi Hardianto, "The destruction of this evidence is very important so that the evidence does not circulate again in the black market by irresponsible people". The suspect AS is charged with Article 21 paragraph 2 letters b and d, Article 40 paragraph 2 of Law Number 5 of 1990 concerning Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems. He faces a maximum five-year prison sentence and a maximum fine of Rp 100 million.