Caught red-handed, a poacher had to answer for his actions before the Saint Gall justice system on Thursday. Aged 58, the man had, among other things, shot several deer at night out of the territory where he was authorized to hunt. Misdeeds for some immortalized by a camera trap installed in the area for wildlife observation purposes. Afterwards, having noticed the small installation, the accused nevertheless took it upon himself to get rid of the camera. Too bad for him, the latter, installed there by the canton, transmitted the photos in real time to an employee.
An image, in which the man is not clearly visible, thus reached the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the St. Gallen police. “It’s not me in the photo!”, the hunter argued before the single judge during the trial. Not enough to convince the latter. During a search of the accused’s home, work pants identical to those immortalized in the photo were found. And for the magistrate to drive the point home, before delivering his verdict: “I have been observing you for two hours now. It’s you in this picture, quite simply.”
Convicted in particular for multiple violations of the law on weapons and the law on hunting, the poacher received an eight-month suspended prison sentence, with a probationary period of four years. Period during which his hunting license will be suspended. He will also have to pay a fine of 7,000 francs. But things could soon change, because the lawyer of the fifty-year-old has already announced that he will appeal this verdict.
