“I am an animal lover who has been overwhelmed. I do not feel that I have done any harm. “With his little notoriety acquired on social networks, the Hayangeois Farid Mekki, alias” the King of the jungle 57 “, has attracted a good number of followers, amazed to see him posing with wild animals like servals or monkeys.
But the Mosellan found himself in the sights of justice because he had no certificate of capacity to hold such animals. Worse: he was suspected of trafficking rare species, with the sale of the kittens of his two servals. That is to say two litters which would have brought him 19,000 €. This is what emerges from the survey carried out by the French Biodiversity Office and the Central Office for the Fight against Environmental Damages.
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“Obtain advertising contracts”
From the point of view of the public prosecutor, the Hayangeois, sentenced in Metz in 2017 for similar facts, “seeks to do business. He took the stage to obtain advertising contracts, especially in Dubai ”. Other procedures are underway, especially in Marseille, recalled the prosecutor on Monday, July 5, during the hearing at the Thionville judicial court.
At the bar, the respondent swears, he never got rich. But he admits having “messed around by passing off the servals for savannahs”, the result of the cross between a serval and a domestic cat.
Sentenced to 30 months in prison, including 20 months suspended probation for 2 years, the King of the jungle lost his crown. He finds himself withdrawing custody of his remaining serval, Kiara. The firm part of his sentence will be arranged by means of an electronic bracelet. He also receives a fine of 15,000 €, to which will be added the financial compensation of the civil parties, four associations for the defense of animals, the amounts of which will be fixed on November 8.
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