MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. A court in Moscow has imposed a 4,000-ruble fine ($43) on Emil Panakhov for transporting a lion cub in a car sharing vehicle, the press service of the Moscow City Court told TASS.

"The magistrate judge of the judicial district No. 191 of the Fili-Davydkovo district of Moscow considered the case materials on the fact of a rare animal [being transported] in a carsharing vehicle. The court came to the conclusion [that the animal] was present in the actions of Panakhov E. S. of the corpus delicti, provided by article 8.35 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses (causing harm to rare and endangered species of animals) and imposed an administrative penalty in the form of an administrative fine of 4,000 rubles with confiscation of the lion cub," the press service said.

The incident occurred on March 9 on Gerasim Kurin Street in Moscow. Traffic police stopped a carshare vehicle driven by Panakhov. A lion cub named Zeus was sitting in the passenger seat. It turned out that the man had purchased a 4-month-old lion cub in another Russian region from an unidentified person. The buyer failed to care for the animal properly, leading to the lion cub developing rickets. Panakhov did not have the proper documents to transport or be in possession of the rare, endangered animal.

The lion cub was transferred to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.