The Police Commissioner yesterday rebutted allegations by Birdlife Malta, which said the PC had not started investigating messages posted on the hunters’ and trappers’ FKNK’s website forum.

In a press release issued yesterday, BirdLife Malta urged the Police Commissioner to respond to the criminal complaint it filed a year ago regarding the messages posted on FKNK’s website, as well as the content of FKNK media statements targeting it. The organisation also stated that it sent a letter to the Commissioner earlier this month asking for his immediate action with regard to the threats recently being posted on the FKNK website forum against members, staff and officials of BirdLife Malta and its conservation project sites.

BirdLife said its first report to the Police Commissioner was sent on 15 February 2007, more than a year ago, quoting various posts on the FKNK forum and alerting the Police to these statements.

Birdlife said that, to date, the Commissioner of Police has not communicated with the organisation or its legal counsel as to what the investigations have yielded. BirdLife warned that in view of the recent escalation of the malicious acts, it was holding the Commissioner of Police responsible if no action was forthcoming in this regard.

BirdLife recalled one of the early FKNK press statements dated 7 July, 2006 entitled BirdLife will feel Hunters’ Wrath, in which FKNK had stated that “Birdlife and Co. will feel the full weight of the wrath of FKNK and Maltese Hunters and Trappers...” and “... before anyone can abolish such traditions they would have to go over a lot of dead bodies.”

“While BirdLife is aware that many FKNK members and legitimate hunters do not agree with violence and escalating tension, it is incredible that rather than condemning last Sunday’s arson attack and calling on its members to calm down, the FKNK administration once again chose to take threatening shots at BirdLife,” Tolga Temuge, BLM executive director, concluded.

Replying to this statement, the Police Commissioner said that: “as a matter of fact, during the course of the investigations the administrator of the forum provided the police with the technical information (IP addresses and date and time stamps), which led to two particular people. These had their private residences searched, and subsequently three computers were seized by the Cyber Crime Unit. These people were arrested and interviewed at length.

“Further investigations resulted in one of them being released without any action being taken against him, due to the fact that there was no evidence to support any charges against him.

“The other person was eventually arraigned in Court for being in possession of illegal material which, however, had nothing to do with the allegations made by Birdlife Malta. This case has since been brought before the Court and is still sub judice.

“In October 2007, another thorough investigation was carried out to analyse whether abusive material was being posted on the FKNK forum. However, no infringements of the law were observed. At the time of this investigation the FKNK forum had 72 pages of postings, totalling 15,057 messages, and 2,631 registered members. During this investigation it was observed that the messages were periodically updated by both the administrator and the members.

“It is to be noted that since March 2007 frequent patrols were carried out by members of the Police Force with the objective of protecting Birdlife members. The BirdLife Malta President had, on 9 March 2007, also been provided with fixed point protection at his residence during the night. As of 16 April 2007, this protection was replaced by frequent patrols, which are still effective to date. During this time no adverse remarks were ever reported.

“One must emphasise that the incident of the three burnt vehicles that occurred last Sunday at the Busketto gardens is being thoroughly investigated by officers from the Criminal Investigations Department. A Magisterial Inquiry is also in progress.

“Notwithstanding the above, the Police Cyber Crime Unit will continue to monitor the FKNK forum for any infringements of the law.

“As in the past, the police will immediately take criminal action against defaulters should any criminal infringements be detected, and sufficient evidence be available”, the police statement said.