TENGGARONG (Indonesia): Three Indonesians and a Malaysian went on trial for killing endangered orang utan and other protected primates as a means of pest control at an oil palm plantation on Borneo island.

Prosecutors said plantation manager Phuah Chuan Hun, a Malaysian national, and his employee Widiantoro paid two men between 2009 and 2010 to kill the primates.

The employees and the two suspects, Imam Muhtarom and Mujianto, were charged with killing endangered species and all face a five-year jail sentence.

“The two men were paid one million rupiah (RM334) for each orang utan and 200,000 rupiah (RM66) for other monkeys,” prosecutor Suroto told the Tenggarong district court yesterday.

The plantation, in East Kali­mantan province on Indonesian Borneo, is a subsidiary of the publicly-listed Malaysian-owned Metro Kajang Holdings.

“The two used a 4.5mm calibre airsoft gun to shoot the orang utan out of trees before their six hunting dogs chased them,” Suroto said.

Police arrested the four men in November after photos of them with their prey circulated around the community.

Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orang utan left in the wild, 80% of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

They are faced with extinction from poaching and the rapid destruction of their forest habitat, driven largely by oil palm and paper plantations.

The trial will resume next week. — AFP