[WATCH] Ian Borg shrugs off action on aide police caught trapping illegally

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg said that he will not be taking any action against his advisor Jesmond Zammit, who was caught by police trapping illegally.

Zammit was detained in a Siġġiewi field by police on suspicions of illegal bird trapping on 26 March, according to a report by The Shift.

The Environmental Protection Unit was acting on a report from environmental organisation CABS. A video of the incident shows Zammit handling a bird trapping net in a field and eventually being confronted by police.

Asked about the incident, Borg said he would be awaiting the results of the police investigation, adding it is now up to the police to see whether the law was broken.

He also said that he would not be taking any action against Zammit. “Who am I, the police?”

Borg at first said the video showed it was Zammit but immediately recanted, insisting it was not all that clear that it was him.

The minister also said that he feels sorry for bird trappers, who feel deceived by promises made by the Nationalist government prior to EU accession that the practice would remain legal. 

“It was only a Labour government that opened the trapping season in October,” he said.

Zammit is the father of Adreana Zammit, who was handed a €62,400 contract by direct order to serve as a junior lawyer with Transport Malta months before obtaining her warrant. She has since quit her job.