Yahoo – AFP,
10 March 2016
Eagles are regarded as a "highly protected" species under Sri Lanka's strict conservation laws (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe) |
Sri Lankan
police Thursday arrested two men for torturing a sea eagle after pictures on
social media showed the endangered bird being skinned alive and its legs cut
off.
Police at
the beach resort of Habaraduwa, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the capital
Colombo, made the arrests after a public outcry over the photos which were
published on Facebook and in local newspapers.
"Our
intelligence unit was able to track down some of the men involved,"
Habaraduwa police chief Udaya Kumara said by telephone. "We arrested two
and we are looking for another three who were in the photos."
Photos
showed a group of men watching the bird being skinned by at least one man with
a knife, while another filmed the incident on a mobile phone.
Inspector
Kumara said the pair were being charged under Sri Lanka's flora and fauna act
and could be sentenced to five years in prison if convicted.
Eagles are
regarded as a "highly protected" species under the country's strict
conservation laws.
The arrests
came a day after a magistrate in Colombo remanded a Buddhist monk in custody on
a charge of illegally keeping a two-year-old baby elephant at his temple. Elephants
are considered sacred in Sri Lanka.
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