A man charged with capturing and torturing a fox to death and then posting the video online has had his sentence reduced in appeals court from a 91-day imprisonment to a fine of one million rials.
Morad Hamidi, the head of the Sarvabad Department of the Environment in Kurdistan Province, spoke out against the reduced sentence, telling IRNA: “We were not informed of the time and date [of this case] in the appeals court so that we could have the chance to appear in court and explain the details of the act so that a more appropriate sentence would be issued.”
Hamidi added that the Sarvabad Department of the Environment has a workforce of only four people when in fact it needs 35 officials. “Under such conditions, the least one would expect is that sentencing for such offences would be deterrent,” Hamidi stated.
He went on to say that he has written to the head of the Kurdistan Department of the Environment to follow up on the matter through the head of the Justice Department.