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akarta: WWF Indonesia is asking authorities levy the maximum sentence on a 49-year-old man on trial for allegedly smuggling a tiger skin out of a nature reserve in Riau.

The suspect was brought to trial in a district court in West Sumatra for allegedly keeping, transporting and trading endangered species.

He was arrested in West Sumatra in March following a three-day inves-tigation by the Natural Resource Conservation Agency in Riau and West Sumatra (BKSDA), with support from WWF Indonesia’s Tiger Protection Unit. The arrest was made after the seizure of the skin of an adult male tiger believed to have been poisoned inside or near a wildlife reserve in Riau Province.

“An appropriate punishment is expected to help create a deterrent effect for those committing wildlife crimes in Indonesia, particularly involving a critically endangered species,” Anwar Purwoto, director of the Forest, Fresh Water and Species Program at WWF Indonesia, said.

Under the law on biodiversity conservation and ecosystems, people convicted of poaching or trading Sumatran tigers are subject to a maximum of five years’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rp 100 million (US$11,700).

The Sumatran Tiger is the only subspecies of the big cat left in Indonesia after the country’s Javanese and Bali subspecies went extinct in the 20th century. It is estimated that only 400 Sumatran tigers survive in the wild.