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Malaysia’s ‘Lizard King’ Wildlife Trafficker Freed From Jail
February 22, 2012

This photo shows a bag containing live boa constrictors which Malaysian businessman Anson Wong tried to smuggle out of Malaysia on Aug. 26, 2010. He was released more than three years early from a five-year jail sentence on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Sepang Sessions Court) This photo shows a bag containing live boa constrictors which Malaysian businessman Anson Wong tried to smuggle out of Malaysia on Aug. 26, 2010. He was released more than three years early from a five-year jail sentence on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Sepang Sessions Court)
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A Malaysian appeal court on Wednesday freed a wildlife trafficker known as the “lizard king” who had been caught trying to smuggle boa constrictors, overturning a lower court’s sentence.

Anson Wong was arrested in August 2010 at Kuala Lumpur airport as he tried to smuggle 95 of the endangered snakes to neighboring Indonesia.

The Malaysian, who is in his 50s, was sentenced to six months in jail later that year. Prosecutors appealed the verdict at the high court, but it extended the sentence to five years.

But Judge Low Hop Bing, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya, the administrative capital south of Kuala Lumpur, overturned the sentence on Wednesday and ordered Wong’s immediate release

“The high court did not make any reference that the appellant had pleaded guilty in the lower court,” Low said.

“[It] also erroneously considered irrelevant factors like that the 95 snakes were kept in a small bag and were being tortured,” he added.

Low said the jail term was thus adjusted to 17-and-a-half months, which Wong had already served.

Wong refused to speak to reporters when leaving the courtroom but his lawyer Shafee Abdullah said he felt vindicated.

“Some have pressured the courts to whack my client so he becomes a whipping boy; this is not fair,” he said.

However, wildlife activists were outraged at the decision.

“Wong cruelly stuffed live animals into a bag for profit and now he’s free to do it again,” Shenaaz Khan, president of the Malaysian Animal Welfare Society, told AFP.

After his arrest in 2010, Malaysia revoked all his wildlife trading permits and ordered the seizure of all his animals, including two tigers and a crocodile.

Despite efforts by Southeast Asian authorities to crack down on animal smuggling, the practice still persists in the region, posing a threat to endangered species, activists say.

Agence France-Presse