Beijing backs jail term for Chinese ‘Ivory Queen’ Yang Fenglan in Tanzania
- Foreign ministry says China is ‘ready to work with the international community to protect wildlife and curb international trade’
- Businesswoman was convicted of smuggling almost 2 tonnes of elephant tusks to Asia
Beijing said it supported the 15-year jail sentence handed down to a notorious trafficker of elephant tusks by a Tanzanian court on Tuesday, and refused to extend any help to the convicted Chinese national.
China is “ready to work with the international community to protect wildlife and curb international trade”, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
“We do not shield the illegal activities of Chinese citizens and support the relevant Tanzanian authority’s just investigation of, and trying of, this case in accordance with the law,” he said.
The total value of the 706 trafficked ivory tusks was estimated at US$2.5 million, Reuters reported. Yang, who had been living in Tanzania since 1975, was the head of a one of Africa’s biggest underground ivory trafficking rings.