Time magazine named him one of its "Heroes for the Planet," but now Dutch scientist Marc van Roosmalen has been sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison.
Van Roosmalen was jailed in June by Brazilian authorities and recently convicted of holding an Internet auction for the naming rights of two monkey species he discovered. He planned to use the proceeds to help preserve their habitats.
But the court ruled the auction was illegal because van Roosmalen was working at Brazil's National Institute for Amazon Research at the time of the discoveries and said the naming rights belonged to the government.
Van Roosmalen blames the state's powerful logging interests and overzealous environmental regulators for orchestrating his conviction and accuses them of trying to discourage scientific investigation.
"They are criminalizing science," van Roosmalen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview this week from the Amazon city of Manaus.
Scientists have rallied around van Roosmalen, saying the case highlights a growing conflict between scientific research and Brazil's efforts to protect the Amazon with some of the world's toughest environmental laws.
Prosecutors countered that Roosmalen's conviction sets an important example.
"Brazil isn't against science, but there is a code of ethics that exists," said an assistant to federal prosecutor Edmilson da Costa Barreiros Jr. "Science doesn't justify the seriousness of these crimes."
Many scientists say Brazil's regulations often hamper legitimate research, even as loggers and ranchers escape punishment for routinely ignoring environmental regulations.
"I think my father felt that if he followed all the necessary requirements, he'd never get anything done," Vasco van Roosmalen, the scientist's son, told The Associated Press. "He had the attitude that if he was doing the right thing, the rules were not important. That can get you into trouble in Brazil."
Source:Xinhua/agencies
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