Birdlife activists have been officially charged with illicit possession of birds and have been summoned to court in October for posing in a picture with protected species to highlight illegal hunting.
The young activists are going to be charged with laws aimed at hunters and trappers under a 2006 law intended to stem illegalities, according to documents seen by The Sunday Times of Malta.
Birdlife conservation manager Nicholas Barbara, who is among those charged, has questioned whether the action is a drive to stop the NGO from exposing the atrocities of illegal hunting.
“These charges come as a surprise to us since the matter was already investigated by police, and it appears no wrong-doing has been found... It is worrying that undue pressure is being made on the police to take the matter even further than it has already gone through.”
The activists, most of whom are foreigners who do not live in Malta, are scheduled to appear in court on October 8 to answer to the charge “and to be dealt with according to the law”. In the summons they are warned of arrest if they failed to show up.
The arraignment will take place after Magistrate Aaron Bugeja upheld a request by the hunters’ federation (FKNK) on July 23 urging the police to take criminal action against six Birdlife activists. They were featured in a picture distributed to the media in October 2012 where they were holding protected birds targeted by hunters.
The law bars anybody from “keeping any bird, whether alive or dead” and FKNK had argued that if the law applied to them it should also apply to Birdlife activists. The government had given hunters an amnesty to register any stuffed protected birds until May 2003. Anybody found in possession of protected birds caught after that deadline is liable under the current law.
Prior to the magistrate’s ruling, the police had refused to take any action, arguing that the Birdlife members were highlighting illegal hunting and did not have the criminal intent to break the law.
Lawyers who had spoken to The Sunday Times of Malta acknowledged that the magistrate’s stand was legally correct but “did not make sense”.
Undue pressure is being made on the police to take the matter even further
A police officer who served at the administrative law enforcement unit also disagreed with the magistrate’s ruling saying such action was a waste of the unit’s limited resources.
“We can’t waste our time on these people as we should employ it wisely to apprehend those who killed the birds,” said the police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But the unit itself has been stripped of its experience in handling wildlife crime as eight of its officers have been transferred to police stations over the last year. Half of the officers had over a decade of experience in the field.
The move is considered to be a blow to the unit as wildlife crime requires specific training and experience to be effective. Questions sent to the Home Affairs Ministry asking who replaced these officers and what kind of training they received went unanswered.
Meanwhile, ALE officers went to the Għadira nature reserve on Thursday to inspect a flamingo chick rescued from Paradise Bay, prompting accusations of intimidation.
The change in attitude by law enforcement authorities has raised questions, since applying such a narrow interpretation means anyone who comes across a shot down protected bird runs the risk of getting into trouble with the law if he picks it up and takes it to a vet or Birdlife for treatment.
Mr Barbara said the situation with illegal hunting demands cooperation from all, not one that should be having police at loggerheads with Birdlife.