Tension between the hunters’ federation and BirdLife Malta reached new heights yesterday as the two sides traded charges in an ‘espionage row’.
The FKNK accused bird conservationists of using illegal methods to spy on trappers by intercepting their mobile phone conversations.
The hunting federation accused BirdLife and the anti-hunting German organisation CABS of using a false mobile phone station, known as an IMSI catcher, to intercept mobile traffic.
The alleged illegality is supposed to have happened in the vicinity of Ciantar Tower at Majjistral Park in Mellieħa.
Birdlife and CABS denied the claim.
The German organisation described the statement as “weird, xenophobic and insupportable”, adding that it never used any electronic devices to eavesdrop on private mobile phone conversations.
“CABS called the statement ‘weird, xenophobic and insupportable’, adding it never used any electronic devices to eaves dropon private mobile phone conversations
The federation based its claim on what it said was an antenna that had been recently installed on the tower and dismantled after a trapper chased a car believed to have been used by the “spies”.
The trapper is said to have given chase after spotting four people on his trapping station in the area. However, the four people fled the scene in a leased car – the federation published the registration plate and the company from which it was leased – with the trapper giving chase in a red van.
And in what appears to be a leaf out of a James Bond movie, the FKNK said the trapper could, on his mobile phone, listen in on a conversation the four people were having with someone via a radio device.
“He heard them saying words to the effect of: ‘We’ve been caught, we’ve been caught, and we are being chased by a red van’,” the FKNK reported.
The federation said that the trapper suspected that he could listen to the radio conversation as a result of the antenna he had noticed at the tower and which was subsequently removed by someone driving the same leased car used by the four spies.
The federation condemned the mobile phone interception and said it expected the matter to be investigated by the police.
Meanwhile, CABS said its official, Fiona Burrows, indicated by the FKNK as one of the four “spies” had not been in Malta since last weekend. It also said the organisation never used the car rental company identified by the FKNK.
The government opened a finch trapping season again this year.
Finch trapping is not allowed under the Birds Directive, but the government is arguing in the European Court of Justice for an exception, on the grounds that trapping is a traditional socio-cultural practice.