A Tanzanian court on Tuesday found a Chinese national popularly known as the “Ivory Queen” guilty of smuggling elephant tusks to Asia.
According to BBC, Yang will be spending 15 behind bars.
In 2015 Yang Feng Glan denied smuggling 860 pieces of ivory between 2000 and 2004 worth 13 billion shillings. She was charged alongside two Tanzanian men; Salivius Matembo and Manase Philemon.
The 69 year old businesswoman has been living in Tanzania since the 1970s. She also owns a Chinese restaurant in the country’s capital of Dar es Salaam.
Today, Kisutu Court Magistrate Huruma Shaidi sentenced the trio to fifteen years in jail for leading an organised criminal gang.
“The prosecution proved the case against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt,” Judge Shaidi said.
Other reports indicated that the court also demanded that they pay twice the market value of the elephant tusks or risk spending an additional two years in prison.
Glan is apparently the secretary-general of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council. Reuters reports that she was not allowed to take a plea until the case resumes.
Read: Three Chinese Nationals Arrested With Ivory, Leopard Skin And Rotten Dog Meat In Kilimani
She is being held at the city’s Segerea maximum security prison until an October 12 bail hearing.
In 2016, Tanzania sentenced two Chinese men to 35 years in prison for ivory smuggling, and in December 2015 another court sentenced four Chinese nationals to 20 years in jail after they were convicted of smuggling rhino horns.
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