MOSCOW: Four Eastern European men – two Czech Republic lizard collectors and two recognised research scientists from Moscow – have each been sentenced to 12-month jail terms for a cruel attempt to smuggle protected native animals out of WA.
But the men will be spared further time behind bars on the sentence imposed by District Court Judge Stephen Scott, who took into account the 7 1/2 months the men had spent in custody since their arrest in February.
The men – Czech’s Jan Suchanek and Jan Stenicka and Russians Roman Nazarov and Eduard Galoyan – will sign $5000 undertakings not to commit further offences for the rest of the jail term which will mean they are not required to spend further time in prison.
The men, who remain in custody on related charges in the Perth Magistrate’s Court and are likely to be deported, each pleaded guilty to multiple charges of attempting to export native specimens and attempting to export live animals in a way that subjected them to cruel treatment.
The four arrived in Perth earlier this year and attempted to smuggle animals including skinks, geckos, frogs and snakes out of Australia.
All four of the men, who arrived in Perth in January, tried to export the animals by packaging them in various ways and posting them overseas using fictitious names.
Some of the packages had the animals hidden in hollowed out books.
Galoyan and Nazarov were caught at Perth International Airport with animals hidden in their hand luggage. Galoyan had concealed the animals in socks in a canteen. Nazarov had animals hidden in cigarette packets.
Judge Scott said 28-year-old Suchanek, who tried to export 32 animals, had been interested in reptiles since he was eight years old.
