KEMAMAN: A Datuk Seri and two others have been arrested by the Forestry Department’s enforcement unit for illegal logging in the Cerul forest reserve and an adjacent Orang Asli reserve, covering 50ha.
The 52-year-old Datuk Seri, a businessman from here, and the two men, in their early 40s, were in the area when they were stopped by the department’s officers.
The trio tried to avoid arrest by showing a letter that had been rubber-stamped and signed by a high-ranking officer in the Orang Asli Affairs Department, purportedly allowing them to extract timber from the area.
“The letter does not give them the right to extract timber,” Terengganu Forestry Department director Datuk Ahmad Fadzil Abdul Majid told the New Straits Times yesterday.
“They need logging and extraction permits issued by the department to carry out such activities in the Cerul forest reserve and Orang Asli reserve, but they failed to produce the documents.
“They then blamed villagers for the logging.
“They showed a plan of the logging site in the Orang Asli reserve, but failed to produce the technical specifications.” He said when the department’s officers arrived at noon on Tuesday, the workers in the area fled into the jungle, leaving behind a lorry and an excavator.
Initial investigations revealed that the logging began on state land that has been gazetted as an Orang Asli reserve, after which it encroached on the Cerul forest reserve by some 2km.
“We seized 200 tonnes of logs of various species, mainly meranti and balau, worth RM1 million.
“The logs were extracted from the Cerul forest reserve,” said Fadzil, adding that the seizure was the department’s biggest this year. He thanked villagers for tipping off the enforcement unit, which led to the raid’s success.
He said the three suspects were brought to the police station here and later released on bail. Fadzil said the trio would be charged under Section 15 of the National Forestry Act for logging and extracting forest resources without permits.
They face a mandatory fine of RM500,000, a jail sentence of not less than a year and not exceeding 20 years, or both upon conviction.
