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MALTATODAY 17 June 2018

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12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 JUNE 2018 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS A man has been acquitted of danger- ous driving charges after a bitter and staggeringly convoluted 12-year court battle in which a judge noted an "un- heard-of and manifestly dispropor- tionate procedural tenacity" by the prosecution. The case dates back to 4 July, 2006, when Nicolai Magrin – who in a sepa- rate case had pled guilty to bribery in the ADT driving test scandal in 2007 – was accused of dangerous driving under the influence of intoxicating substances and of hitting and slightly injuring a pedestrian in Tower Road, Sliema, on the 29 April 2006 at 8.15am. The victim was Giuseppe Cuschieri, 71, at the time of the incident, and father of former Labour MEP Joseph Cuschieri. However, the incident occurred at 8.15pm – in the evening, not in the morning – and therefore Magrin was acquitted of the charges in 2006. The prosecution did not appeal the judgment. Subsequently, a new charge was filed against Magrin in November 2006 for the same accusation, but on this occa- sion the time of the accident was cor- rectly indicated on the charge as being 8.15pm. Magrin raised the plea of ne bis in idem – not twice in the same [thing] – a plea raised when a person is facing justice more than once for the same fact, and was acquitted by the Court of Magistrates. This time the prosecution did appeal, but the Court of Appeal decided that the 'ne bis in idem' did not apply and sent the acts back to the Court of Mag- istrates for the case to continue. So, the defendant requested a consti- tutional reference on the breach of the 'ne bis in idem' principle, insisting that he had a right not to be tried twice for the same fact. In March 2009, Judge Joseph R. Mi- callef decided that there was in fact a breach of the principle, and given that it was a constitutional reference, sent the acts back to the Court of Magis- trates so that the case be disposed of according to the ruling. The Court of Magistrates acquitted Magrin and there was no appeal from that ruling. However, it transpired that the AG had filed an appeal to the constitu- tional judgment by Judge Micallef, yet without notifying Magrin at the time he was acquitted by the magistrates' court in February 2010. The AG also filed a new case in the Civil Court, saying the 2010 acquittal should be declared null since the mag- istrate should have awaited the final decision from the appeal to the consti- tutional reference case. In turn, the appeal filed on the con- stitutional reference was put off until this new civil case was to be decided. In October 2013, Judge Silvio Meli ac- ceded to the Attorney General's pleas, ruling that the acquittal should not have been delivered before the final decision on the appeal to the constitu- tional reference. However, Judge Meli had some very strong words for the prosecution and the commissioner of police, saying that the "procedural saga" revealed "considerable procedural incompe- tence." The fact that there were at that point six separate cases and counting, re- lated to the incident, led the judge to conclude that this was down to either "gross incapacity and incompetence of the prosecution, serious malice in the execution of the judicial process, or unheard-of and manifestly dispropor- PAUL COCKS THOUSANDS of birds are be- ing smuggled into Malta every couple of months, hurting li- censed pet shops and amateur breeders, but also flooding the market with birds whose DNA, lineage and health have no way of being checked or guaran- teed. MaltaToday has learned that many different breeds of birds – including parrots, conures, ringnecks and different kind of finches and songbirds – are being brought over to Malta from Sicily, Reggio Calabria and Emilia Romagna by the truckload. These birds are bought from trappers and unlicensed breeders and therefore cannot be registered in Malta or sold with a ring on their feet. And although they are bought from illegal sources, many are still displayed and sold in many pet shops and on marketplaces on- line. Tony Debattista, a licensed amateur breeder from Tarx- ien, said that even pet shops often could not resist selling birds sourced illegally, when they could make additional hundreds of euros on the sale of one bird alone. "A parrot bought from a li- censed source comes with a certificate that includes in- formation on the bird's DNA, provenance and veterinary health certification," he said. "But consider this, buying a hand-reared African Grey par- rot with certification will cost you around €1,200 but you can get a hand-reared African for €800 from an unlicensed breeder." A quick browse of a popular online local shopping site con- firms that many birds are be- ing sold by unlicensed breed- ers at a much lower price than a licensed breeder or pet shop can afford. "Being offered a hand-reared blue and yellow Macaw for €1,100 should trigger warn- ing alarms in a buyer's head, because there is no way that seller is licensed, member in a club or a certified breeder," Debattista said. "Most of these birds are being smuggled in from Sicily. Many of us know who's doing it, it's an open secret in some circles, and yet they keep in bringing in birds by the thousands." He said that a couple of thou- sands of birds are regularly bundled into a container with other goods and transported to Malta via catamaran from Sicily. "More than half the birds shipped are usually dead by the time the vehicle reaches Malta, and those that make it will be in such a sorry state, it is amazing how they still man- age to sell." In May, Italian police and Eu- ropol arrested nine men and shut down an organised group with a network of illegal buy- ers and sellers of protected birds in Malta and northern Italy. The nine were arrested on suspicion of belonging to a criminal network aimed at il- legally trading protected wild- life, mostly songbirds, which are protected under the Berne Convention. In recent years the criminal group has built up a network of illegal buyers and sellers of protected birds in northern Italy and Malta. Simon, the owner of a pet shop in the south of Malta, said it was becoming increasingly more difficult to resist sourc- ing and selling birds that are trapped or bred illegally, since the local market was flooded with all kinds of birds for sale. "People seem to be under the misguided impression that bird breeding is some sort of get-rich-quick-scheme and that there are enormous prof- its to be had," he said. "So, like Maltese tend to do, many peo- ple have jumped into the fray and are buying birds to breed without making sure of the birds' provenance and health." Simon said that people knew that he focused on the sale of exotic birds – such as macaws, cockatoos, African Greys, Sen- egals, conures and parrotlets – and many tried to offer him birds that they bred themselves at home to sell in his shop. "But every bird I buy locally or from abroad comes with a certificate including a DNA Smuggled birds flooding market Dangerous driver in ADT scandal acquitted over technicality A blue and yellow macaw for sale by a licensed breeder at €1,700 Thousands smuggled into Malta, flooding the market with birds whose DNA, lineage and health have no way of being checked or guaranteed

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