JAKARTA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Denpasar court in Bali sentenced Russian man Andrei Zhetkov one-year imprisonment over a violation of wildlife conservancy codes on Thursday after his attempt to smuggle a protected animal, an orangutan.
The 28-year-old Zhetkov received a higher sentence than the six-month imprisonment given by the prosecutor in the previous trial.
"We hereby hand down one-year imprisonment against the defendant which will be deducted with his detention period," head of the judging panel Bambang Ekaputra said.
Besides the jail sentence, Zhetkov was also fined 10 million rupiahs (about 710 U.S. dollars) which can be replaced by two more months of imprisonment if he could not afford the fine, Bambang said.
"The defendant has no legal document issued by related officials to bring the protected animal out of Indonesia. He violated the wildlife conservancy code for keeping up, transporting and possessing protected animals," the judge said.
The chief judge said Zhetkov was caught carrying the orangutan in Bali airport on March 22 this year.
The two-year-old male orangutan was found unconscious in a basket that was brought by Zhetkov when he undertook a screening procedure to enter the airport terminal premises prior to his departure to Russia.
Besides the orangutan, airport security attendants also found sedative drugs, live geckos and chameleons in his basket.
