A magistrate has ordered that members of Birdlife are charged over the illegal possession of protected birds.

The order came after FKNK’s Lino Farrugia and Joe Perici Calascione challenged the police commissioner in court to investigate Birdlife’s members.

Their request was made after Birdlife published a press release in October 2012 together with a photo showing six people holding dead protected birds.

Birdlife had said in its statement that it had recovered seven injured protected birds, including a common kestrel, a night heron, a yellow-legged gull, a hoopoe, a lesser kestrel, a marsh harrier and a honey buzzard.

The commissioner had said he was not going to investigate because there was no intention by Birdlife to commit a crime.

But Mr Perici Calascione and Mr Farrugia challenged this in court and Magistrate Aaron Bugeja ordered the police to investigate the Birdlife members appearing in the photo, establish their identity and proceed with criminal action against them.

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