Birdlife CEO Mark Sultana said that the reasoning given by the Court of Appeal and the suspended sentence issued over the killings of four flamingos is rather 'baffling.'

The Court of Criminal Appeal on Monday revoked a prison sentence handed to a 24-year-old hunter, who was convicted of killing four flamingos in St. Paul's Bay in 2021.

The court ruled that the migratory birds are not at risk of extinction, being listed in the "least concern" category by a court-appointed expert and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In reaction, Sultana told The Malta Independent that "while one can debate if a jail term was just or not, a protected bird is protected irrespective of its status, and just because it is not at risk of being extinct, does not mean that its protection, or the consequences of illegally killing it, should be less."

"I fail to see the logic. It's like saying that stealing from a rich person carries a lesser punishment than if you steal from a poor person," Sultana said.

Miguel Zammit, a 24-year-old hunter, had been sentenced to imprisonment for a year last September, after he was convicted of killing the four protected birds out of a flock of five. His punishment was changed into a suspended sentence today.