FKNK suspend three hunters who admitted sawing off trees

 “Until further notice the FKNK is immediately suspending this year’s membership and relative insurance policy of Darrin Cross of B’Kara and Charlot Chetcuti of Mosta, and will not renew the membership and insurance policy of Noel Grech of Mosta,” FKNK Secretary-General Lino Farrugia announced in a media statement issued late this morning.

The Magistrates’ Court yesterday fined them €1,000 each and ordered them to pay €1,320 each in damages. The Court also ordered them to do 300 hours of community service under the supervision of a probation officer.

In its statement, the FKNK “strongly and unequivocally” condemned such “cowardly act against the environment”.

The FKNK applauded both the Police and the Court for their “effective and efficient actions” on the eve of the opening of the wild-birds hunting and trapping seasons.

“Considering that the three youths are licenced hunters made it inevitable that the hunting fraternity would be mentioned in the issue,” Farrugia conceded.

He explained how over decades, “hunters and trappers have planted and cared for tens of thousands of trees all over Malta and Gozo, definitely much more than any other sector of the Maltese society”

“This is precisely why such vandalism cannot be tolerated by the FKNK,” Farrugia insisted.

These youths “were not in breach of hunting and/or trapping laws, but they still admitted to having carried out such vandalism and criminal act as a direct result of their anger towards the prevailing hunting situation”, the FKNK Secretary-General concluded his statement.

Cross, 24, Grech, 24, and Chetcuti, 20, both from Mosta, pleaded guilty to sawing off the trees and saplings, most of which had been planted to replace 3,000 trees destroyed in a previous systematic act of vandalism in October 2007.

The trees were hacked away on the night of 25 April 2010 in a similar style to that employed by the vandals who had struck in 2007. The perpetrators of the first incident were never caught.

Police sources were quoted as saying that the accused had told officers they were “angry about the reduced spring hunting season announced this year”.

The shrubs had been bought with €58,000 in public donations after the outrage caused by the 2007 hacking.

Defence lawyer Anglu Farrugia, who was appearing for the three accused together with lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Busuttil, told the court presided by on duty magistrate Anthony Vella that only “a few trees” had been vandalised.

Police Inspector Anthony Portelli, who was prosecuting, told the Court that 104 trees had been damaged, not “a few”.

Farrugia replied that the charge did not specify the exact number of trees that had been vandalised.