The police have not yet taken legal action against developer Charles Polidano, known as Iċ-Ċaqnu, over illegalities related to the animal park at Montekristo Estates six months on from a government complaint.

Last April, the Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretariat wrote to the Police Commissioner with instructions to take legal action against Mr Polidano after two warning letters were ignored.

The breaches relate to the keeping of wild animals in an illegal zoo, as well as the inadequate conditions in which they are being kept.

A warning letter was sent to Montekristo Estates on December 12, 2012, and another was sent two years later, on April 4, following a site inspection in which it was noted that nothing had changed.

Following the most recent site inspection this year, the secretariat asked the Police Commissioner to take legal action.

“A letter... was sent to the Police Commissioner to summon Polidano Group, owners of Montekristo Estates, to face criminal charges before the magistrates courts on various breaches,” a spokesman for the secretariat told The Sunday Times of Malta last July when the newspaper first reported the issue.

But when the newspaper checked last week whether any action had been taken against Mr Polidano, the police said investigations were still ongoing.

Meanwhile, the lion, lynxes, pumas and jungle cats housed at Montekristo were moved to bigger homes last August.

A letter to prosecute was sent to the Police Commissioner to summon Polidano Group

But the illegal zoo still hosts some 61 different species that benefit from international protection under Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Responding to criticism that its exotic animals were being kept in poor conditions, Polidano Brothers had pointed fingers at the authorities for delaying the approval of applications to sanction illegalities.

The animal park is hosted on an illegally developed site subject to an enforcement notice issued by the planning authority in 2008.

Four years later, the planning authority initiated court proceedings against the owner. Last year, the court stopped the authority from demolishing illegal structures on the site.

Since then, Polidano Brothers has made several attempts to continue expanding Montekristo Estates, which Mepa defined as one of “Malta’s largest illegally developed sites”.

Last week, Montekristo Estates was placed on round-the-clock police watch after its owner tried once again to carry on with illegalities.