Three Russian nationals convicted of collecting insects in Sri Lanka departed for their home country on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in Colombo told Russian News Agency (TASS).
“The Russian nationals departed for Russia after paying the fine,” the spokesperson said, adding that “all the three Russians have departed.”
In January 2022, court sentenced three Russian nationals to a fine of 2,885,000 Sri Lankan rupees for illegally collecting rare insects, banning them from leaving the country without paying the fine.
Zoologist Alexander Ignatenko was earlier taken into custody in Sri Lanka after several dead beetles had been found on him, which is a violation of the country’s ban on collecting flora and fauna.
He and two of his colleagues, Artem Ryabov and Nikolai Kilafyan, were detained in February 2020. In May 2021, they were released on bail as their trial began.
The three were charged with killing 277 beetles. Ignatenko maintained that he had neither caught nor killed the insects but picked up dead ones along the road, took photos of them and wrote down the description of each one. (The Morning)
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