A hunter who returned to Malta from a hunting trip in Romania with a suitcase full of dead protected birds has escaped punishment after a judge sitting in the appeal court found that the first court had made “condemnable” mistakes.
The proceedings before that court were such that Mr Justice Neville Camilleri said he had no option but to uphold the man’s appeal and clear him of all charges.
He was ruling in the appeal filed by Kenneth Tanti, whose suitcase was in 2014 found by customs officers to be holding three ferruginous ducks and a little grebe.
The officers grew suspicious of a foul smell coming from his suitcase, which arrived in Malta three days after its owner. The man was subsequently charged with the illegal importation of birds.
Both the ferruginous duck (brajmla ħamra) and the little grebe (blonġun żgħir) are protected species but the duck enjoys the highest level of protection due to its Annex 1 classification under the EU Birds Directive.
In 2016, the court slapped him with a €6,000 fine and a one-year jail term suspended for three years with probation, as well as revoking his hunting licence for life.
However, Mr Justice Camilleri found serious procedural errors in the way the first court handled the case.
He noted that the case file only contained a list of witnesses, without transcripts of their testimonies and without any documents presented by the prosecution to prove its case.
Based on the information contained in the case file, the first court did not have sufficient reasons to find guilt, the judge ruled.
“The [missing information] in the case file is to be despised,” the judge said as he proceeded to clear the hunter of all charges brought against him.
Meanwhile, the same judge found similar procedural mistakes in a case where a cleaner was condemned to a three-year prison sentence after she was convicted of stealing from clients’ homes.
British national Seliam Ann Elbueshi Perry, 43, of Santa Venera, had pleaded guilty to the aggravated theft of jewellery and other items from residences in Sliema and Msida between September 2017 and March 2018.
Mr Justice Camilleri found that the judgment contained two dates: May 2019, which was crossed out, and November 2021 handwritten underneath. He found no note saying this was an authorised correction and neither was the new date accompanied by a signature.
He said that although not every irregularity or imprecision in a court judgment automatically leads to its nullity, the date was an essential part of the judgment and crucial for the administration of justice.
The date requirement on a penal sentence is “obvious” and “indispensable” and failure to observe this rule goes against public order and leads to its annulment, Mr Justice Camilleri said.
He declared the judgment as invalid and sent the case back to the Magistrates’ Court.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel in both cases.