Two Gokwe brothers were sentenced to 13 years in prison after they were convicted of poaching and illegally possessing firearms by Kariba magistrate Felix Chauromwe last week.
BY NUNURAI JENA
Moses (30) and Simon Siamutembwe (35) were convicted on their own plea of guilty.
The pair’s sister-in-law Christine Mudenda (39) escaped jail after she was found guilty of defeating the course of justice and was sentenced to a wholly suspended two years’ imprisonment. Mudenda was accused of storing the poached ivory.
In mitigation, Mudenda said when her brothers-in-law brought the ivory she could not walk for more than 20km to the nearest police base because she had given birth four days earlier, but had told a relative.
It was the State case that the poachers were found in possession of two rifles and raw ivory by police officers following a tip-off.
It was reported that they had unlawfully hunted four elephants and hid the ivory tusks at their homestead. Police searched their houses, leading to their arrest.
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The Siamutembwe brothers were slapped with nine years each for poaching and four years each for illegal possessing of firearms. One year was suspended on good behaviour.
They were also further told to pay $100 000 to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority for the four elephants killed on or before April 2016.
Philip Urayai prosecuted
