Addressing the event, ENV Vice Director Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung said that the Wildlife Protection Awards aims to recognize the significant role of law enforcement agencies, courts and procuracies in observing the law related to wildlife conservation and preventing criminals in the field.

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Representative of Team 2 of the Office for Environmental Criminal Prevention and Control of Ha Tinh province (centre) receives the awards. (Photo: qdnd.vn)

This year, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Tuan from the Office for Environmental Criminal Prevention and Control of the Kien Giang Police Department and Lieutenant Colonel Luu Phuoc Nguyen from the same office of the Quang Nam Police Department won the Best Law Enforcement Office Award.

Meanwhile, the Best Judge Award went to Ngo Duc Du, Judge of Tan Binh district’s People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City.

Best Procurator Award was presented to Hua Ngoc Thong from the People’s Procuracy of Dien Bien district of Dien Bien province.

The best collective award honoured the Mobile Forest Management Team from the Forest Management Sub-Department of Thanh Hoa province and Team 2 of the Office for Environmental Criminal Prevention and Control of Ha Tinh province.

Officials of the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa won the special award for raiding wildlife trafficking rings.

This is the third time the awards were organized after 2013 and 2015. The organizing board received 40 nominations.

The Criminal Code 2015 (revised in 2017) has raised the punishment for wildlife criminals to 15 years in prison. Last year, a criminal received 13 years’ imprisonment for illegal caging and trafficking 145 Java pangolins. Ten other defendants in the case were also sentenced to 5-8 years in jail.

Source: VNA