Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a criminal complaint to the Special State Prosecutor's Office against unknown persons due to the grounds of suspicion that criminal acts for which they are being prosecuted ex officio have been committed, in connection with the case of lion smuggling.
The Agency clarified that Article 265 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro stipulates that whoever is engaged in the transfer of goods across the customs line avoiding the measures of customs supervision or who, while avoiding the measures of customs supervision, transfers goods across the customs line armed, in a group or with the use of force or threats, will be punished imprisonment from six months to five years and a fine.
"Furthermore, Article 311 stipulates that whoever commits the theft of a protected natural asset shall be punished with imprisonment from one to six years, and if the protected natural asset was taken through robbery or robbery or if the value of the stolen protected natural asset exceeds the amount of thirty thousand euros , the perpetrator will be sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison," they announced on their Facebook page.
They also add that Article 312 of the Criminal Code stipulates that whoever, contrary to the regulations, exports or takes abroad or imports or brings into Montenegro a protected natural asset or a specially protected plant or animal, will be punished with imprisonment from three months to three years.
"There are grounds for suspicion that the crime was committed by several perpetrators, and the value of this exotic and protected animal is unofficially estimated at around 200.000 euros," the Agency states.
They appealed to the competent authorities to deal with the problem of animal smuggling and make all their resources available, in order to approach this decades-old problem in a responsible and sustainable way.
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