August 8, 2007

Van Roosmalen Temporarily Released

Van Roosmalen

Chad Arment has passed along the news that the mammalogist and cryptozoologist Marc Van Roosmalen is out of prison on appeal.

A Brazilian judge on Tuesday [August 7, 2007] ordered that a prominent Dutch scientist be freed from prison while he appeals his conviction for environmental crimes and embezzlement, a court official said.

Marc Van Roosmalen was convicted on June 15 of trying to illegally auction off the names of monkey species, keeping rare monkeys at his house without authorization and selling a scaffolding donated to the National Institute for Amazon Research where he worked.

He was sentenced to 15 years and nine months in a prison in the Amazon city of Manaus, where he lives.

Roosmalen has claimed in media reports that he was framed by powerful logging and ranching interests that operate in the Amazon. His lawyer, David Neves, said the charge of selling the scaffolding was baseless and the sentence for the other charges was disproportionate.

On Tuesday, Roosmalen was ordered released pending an appeal, according to a court official who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with court policy. Roosmalen’s lawyer confirmed the ruling.

Over the past decade, Roosmalen, a naturalized Brazilian, has described seven new monkey species in the Amazon…

The complete article, “Brazilian Judge Releases Dutch Scientist,” by Michael Astor, can be read by clicking here.

Some blogs that have discussed the work of Marc Van Roosmalen include the following:

Famed Cryptozoologist to Prison: 14 Years

Happy New Year of The Cryptid Pig

New Giant Peccary, and

Strange New Species.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Filed under Breaking News, Conspiracies, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Men in Cryptozoology, New Species