Cockfight organisers fined €2,000

Three men arrested during a police raid on an illegal cockfight have been fined €2,000 each.

Yesterday afternoon, police inspectors Roderick Agius and Colin Sheldon charged construction worker Johann Saliba, 37, Adrian Pace, 22, and 21-year-old Matthew Micallef respectively with a number of offences under the Animal Welfare Act, including causing unnecessary suffering to animals, mistreating of animals in their care and failing to keep animals in their care in suitable conditions.

Offences under the act are punishable with a fine of between €1,000 and €55,000 and a maximum of three years’ imprisonment.

Agius had told magistrate Gabriella Vella how police had been tipped off that illegal cockfighting was being held at a farmhouse in Handaq, limits of Qormi, on Sunday. After investigating, police had raided the farmhouse.

All three accused had pleaded guilty.

Lawyer Ludvic Caruana appeared for Saliba, lawyer Franco Debono represented Pace and lawyer Edward Gatt was legal counsel to Micallef.