MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) — A Philippine court convicted
nine Chinese fishermen Monday of poaching and taking hundreds of endangered
giant sea turtles from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, fining each of
them nearly $103,000 but imposing no jail term.
The fishermen were arrested in May at Half Moon Shoal and
their boat and catch of 555 endangered sea turtles were seized. The arrests
sparked another spat between the Asian neighbors in the increasingly volatile
South China Sea.
Judge Ambrosio de Luna of the regional trial court in
western Palawan province found them guilty of violating the country's fisheries
code, ordering them to pay a fine of $100,000 each for poaching in Philippine
waters plus 120,000 pesos ($2,666) each for taking wildlife, said Attorney
Hazel Alaska, the clerk of court.
Alaska said de Luna could have imposed a jail term of up to
20 years for the taking of threatened or endangered species but decided to
impose only a fine. In case the fishermen fail to pay the fine, they will have
to serve a maximum of six months in jail for each of the two cases, or a total
of one year.
Once the fines are settled, the fishermen will be released
from the provincial jail, she said. But if they fail to pay the fine, the time
spent in detention since their arrest May 6 can be counted and they can be
released by next May.
China has pressed the Philippines to release the fishermen
and their boat, saying they were taken in Chinese waters. Beijing warned Manila
not to take any "provocative actions so as to avoid further damage to
bilateral relations."
The Philippines says the Chinese were arrested in its
exclusive economic zone.
The shoal, called Banyue Reef in China, is claimed by
Beijing as part of the Nansha island chain, known internationally as the
Spratly Islands. The Spratlys are claimed in whole or part by China, the
Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei. China claims virtually the
entire South China Sea.
President Benigno Aquino III had admitted that the
Philippines could not impose imprisonment or corporal punishment to poachers
since the country is a signatory of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea.
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