Convicted Chinese national Lin Yun Hua has appealed his 14-year sentenced.

The applicant was sentenced in September last year after being found guilty on offenses to do with possession of a specimen listed as species and dealing in Government trophy.

The Chinese national was sentenced to 14 years for possession of a specimen listed as species; 14 years for dealing in Government trophy; and 6 years for Money laundering. The sentences were to run concurrently.

According to his affidavit, the applicant is appealing his jail sentence on the ground that he was sentenced using the National Parks and Wildlife Amended Act when events showed that he possessed the specimen in 2016 and therefore should have been sentenced using sentences before the amendment.

Another ground of his appeal is that the trial court was constitutionally wrong in law as it imposed a sentence that was severe than what which was applicable at the time the offence was committed.

But in its response, the State through Senior State Advocate Matthews Chione has described the appeal as illogical and without any legal basis.

He added that the convict pleaded guilty to the charges in May 2019, two years after the Act was amended, arguing that the Amended Act was the correct Act that the Court used.

“The National Parks and Wildlife Act was amended on January 20, 2017. It was the same Act that was used in Court in charging the Applicant. He was convicted after pleading guilty to offences in the same Amended Act.

“It is illogical to suggest that because the events happened in 2016, he should have been sentenced using the old sentences in the National Parks and Wildlife Act. That can be bizarre and illogical,” argued Chione.

Meanwhile, High Court Annabel Mtalimanja has reserved her ruling to a date to be communicated by the court.