Court gives three herders suspended sentences for reindeer theft

A district court in Lapland has sentenced three reindeer herders to suspended prison terms for stealing reindeer in Utsjoki in May 2020, Yle reports.

The court found all three guilty of theft but ruled that the crime was not aggravated. It dismissed all charges of forgery. The longest sentence was 70 days in prison, suspended. The ruling is not final.

The men were accused of taking more than 50 reindeer from other owners and changing their ear tags and painted markings. They admitted some of the offences but disputed the number of animals involved. The court said there was not sufficient evidence to establish that all the reindeer cited in the case had been stolen.

The three were ordered jointly to pay about 13,000 euros to the state for witness costs, examinations of the reindeer tags and expenses incurred by the Paistunturi reindeer herding cooperative. Each was also ordered to pay compensation to individual reindeer owners.

Some of the reindeer were slaughtered by other members of the cooperative so their ears and tags could be examined. The accused said the slaughter was arbitrary. Some animals in the case belonged to Norwegian reindeer herding cooperatives, and Norwegian herders were among the injured parties.

The defendants were originally charged with aggravated theft and aggravated forgery. Prosecutors said they had changed the animals’ official ear marks and painted markings on their sides. One defendant said he had stolen only two reindeer and that someone had attached his extra ear tags to other people’s animals to frame him.