The hunter who was last week sentenced to a year in jail for shooting a kestrel has filed an appeal and was granted bail pending the hearing.

Kirsten Mifsud, 24, from Cospicua, known as Il-Benghazi, was found guilty of shooting the protected bird last week.

The injured kestrel landed in the schoolyard of St Edward’s College while children were playing football. The incident led to the spring hunting season being closed three days early.

The hunter was also fined €5,000 and had his hunting licence permanently revoked and shotgun confiscated.

The appeal Mr Mifsud filed automatically entitles him to bail pending the hearing.

In his decree granting him bail, Mr Justice David Scicluna noted that the Attorney General had not opposed the granting of bail.

The bail conditions imposed include a deposit of €3,000 and a personal guarantee of €4,000.

The court also ordered the accused to sign a bail book three times a week, to be home between 10pm and 6am and to stay away from an area in Żabbar known as Tal-Fata, where the shooting incident occurred.

He was also ordered not to communicate with any of the witnesses in the case.

Inspector Jurgen Vella prosecuted while lawyers Noel Bianco and Jason Grima appeared for Mr Mifsud.

The April 27 incident led Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to immediately close the hunting season three days before it was scheduled to end. The move was applauded by bird conservationists but derided by hunters. Hunting federation president Joe Perici Calascione described the premature closure of the season as “collective punishment for hunters”.

While the magistrate was applying the sentence applicable under law when he put Mr Mifsud behind bars for a year, the judgment has fuelled debate as to whether the hunter has been made a scapegoat.

Some found that an effective jail term was too harsh.