FKNK seeks meeting with police commissioner over BirdLife criminal complaint

The FKNK says BirdLife’s criminal complaint that spring hunting licences were issued illegally is ‘false’ and has asked to meet the police to put forward its version

23 April 2020, 9:27am
by Kurt Sansone

1 min read

Hunters say the criminal complaint filed by BirdLife has no basis at law

The hunting federation, FKNK, has asked for a meeting with the police to rebut a criminal complaint filed yesterday by BirdLife Malta that spring hunting licences were illegal.

The FKNK is insisting the special spring hunting licences, issued on the basis of a legal notice, were in order and BirdLife’s complaint was “baseless”.

The issue surrounds the legality of the legal notice that makes spring hunting possible. This was issued jointly by the Environment Minister and the Gozo Minister.

The law dictates that it is the Environment Minister who is empowered to issue such rules.

Following the change in Cabinet at the start of the year, an anomalous situation arose because while the environment law empowers the environment minister to sign off on a derogation for spring hunting, the hunting enforcement unit was placed in the remit of the Gozo ministry.

BirdLife are claiming the derogation is illegal and consequently all hunting licences are illegal.

However, the FKNK said the criminal complaint filed by the bird conservation group was “a false report” that only served to waste police resources.

Meanwhile, hunting group St Hubert’s Hunters also hit out at BirdLife, insisting the legal notice making spring hunting possible was signed by the Environment Minister as dictated by law.

Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday. He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...