PRAGUE (AP) — A court in the Czech Republic has convicted three men of killing critically endangered tigers and illegally trading in tiger products.
They were arrested last year after police conducting raids in Prague and elsewhere in the country discovered the body of a recently killed tiger, a large number of skins of big cats and the bodies of 20 other protected animals.
The county court in Ceska Lipa sentenced taxidermist Milos Hrozinek to three years in prison on Tuesday. Animal parks owner Ludvik Berousek received a two-year suspended sentence and a fine, and Vietnamese businessman Xuan Vu Le also got a two-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors say the three arranged to have tigers killed and their body parts processed for products to be sold on the black market to Asian buyers.
The men can appeal.
