Through the looking-glass and straight down the rabbit hole: and this magistrate is yet another Taghna Lkoll appointee of last summer
Demonstrating spectacular understanding of the spirit of the law, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja has acted on a complaint by the bird-shooters’ lobby ordered the police to investigate members of Birdlife for “illegal possession of protected birds”.
The birds are dead, and the reason that those Birdlife volunteers have them at all is because they picked them up from fields and in nature reserves after members of the bird-shooters’ lobby shot them and killed them.
Instead of ordering the police to investigate who killed those protected birds in the first place, the magistrate orders them to investigate the volunteers who are trying to stop the killing – because instead of leaving those carcasses in the fields for the shooters to collect and stuff, they picked them up and took them to their offices and called a press conference.
Incredible.
So if somebody shoots a bird of prey and I find it dead beneath my laundry-line and pick it up and put it somewhere and work out what to do with it (it has happened), are the police going to investigate and arrest me and charge me in court with the illegal possession of protected birds?
I’d better not give them any ideas. Given the age of the new recruits, you don’t want them getting too excited.
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When I read it, I really thought that the world was tipping upside down, as you have to be an utter imbecile to even pursue the thought let alone act upon it. Can these people even start to reason?
It’s as if whenever someone is murdered, they put the undertaker in jail.
Appropriate use of the word imbecile.
1984 here we come.
Another great example of a PL nominated member of the judiciary.
You are mistaken.
[Daphne – Aaron Bugeja was appointed magistrate by the Labour government last year, and at the same time, Labour Party deputy leader Toni Abela’s office partner Charmaine Galea: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130613/local/new-judge-magistrates-announced.473756 ]
To my knowledge Magistrate Bugeja is not known to be a Labour Party supporter.
[Daphne – Nobody said he was, only that he is a Labour government appointee.]
From what I know of him at Uni he was a Laburist. Perhaps not overtly so like Ramona Frendo but still a Laburist.
Unless Magistrate Bugeja shows otherwise he is known not to be a Labour supporter.
Read it and wept.
The law says that you can’t keep any stuffed birds.
The members of Birdlife know this they should be charged and fined the maximum as a lesson.
If no action is taken against them what will keep anyone from shooting a protected bird and stuff it saying that he found it dead under his laundry-line.
[Daphne – The answer to your question would be obvious to any remotely rational person, Mr Loporto. The purpose of Birdlife is the protection of birds and not their extermination. The law against owning taxidermy of protected bird species was enacted to protect those bird species by clamping down on trade in their corpses as well, and not as an end in itself. Birdlife neither shot the birds nor obtained their carcasses from those who did.]
Next time you find a dead bird under your laundry-line, just bury it. No need for a big funeral service, just dig a hole and put it there.
Donations to Birdlife will be appreciated.
[Daphne – Certainly not. I shall henceforth make a point of ringing Birdlife, giving them the dead bird and uploading photographs on this website.]
Just make sure they don’t keep it for themselves,as seems to have been done with the birds found. In that case you will be helping them break the law
Again, don’t be that darned stupid, Silvio.
Do you really know what you’re talking about?
Silvio, when you die, make sure the police are at your deathbed along with your family. It is illegal to keep a dead corpse at home.
Hi, Baxter, what baffles me is how can I make sure of anything if I am dead?
I will make sure (before I die) that my family will say that they found me under Daphne’s laundry-line.
[Daphne – You do have a sense of humour, after all, Mr Loporto.]
Mr. Loporto, are you for sure so daft?
Silvio if you happen to find a murdered body, don’t alert anyone and just bury it. If the police get to know that you have a dead body on your hands, you might be arrested.
Do try and use your brain once in a while.
Silvio, the law says that one cannot be in possession of unlicensed weapons or a quantity of drugs. Should police be charged for illegal possession when they seize drugs or weapons after a search? Logic, dear Silvio, logic.
Imma dan il-maġistrat x’inhu tuba? Nerġa’ ntenni kif ktibt f’post ieħor…verament tal-biki u xejn aktar. Miskin min se jiġi taħt idejhom!
http://www.change.org/petitions/honourable-pm-joseph-muscat-ministers-evarist-bartolo-edward-scicluna-and-unions-umasa-mut-i-call-upon-you-to-stop-the-reluctance-to-move-forward-with-negotiations-students-are-not-bargaining-tools-or-chess-pawns-and-their-rights-aren-t-to-be-trample?recruiter=16763185&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_mobile
Inspiration for Muscat.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beijing-wants-to-predetermine-hong-kong-elections/2014/06/29/690a103a-fbe8-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html
Now it seems China plans to stick to the letter, but not the spirit, of its promise. Instead of ensuring true competition, China instead will impose a pro-Beijing committee to nominate candidates for general election, disqualifying anyone who doesn’t “love the country and love Hong Kong.”
He was the prosecutor in this shocking case:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/24168/magistrate-raps-attorney-general-over-request-to-have-woman-institutionalised-20130123#.U9EpbuhBvt0
Not long until someone is charged with hitting a policeman’s boot with a face.
A clear example of not “the law being an ass” but the interpreter is the ass especially in this case.
Evidently Magistrate Bugeja allowed himself to be bullied by the FKNK representatives. In my view, he showed weakness in succumbing to this sort of pressure: had he made full use of common sense, he would have thrown out FKNK’s request without hesitation.
“Common Sense” what a misnomer as its not common at all.
The taghna lkoll motto is
“Because we can”
An absolute and valid verbal justification of any action that is seemingly without a clear goal or purpose.
He was bullied by people higher than himself in the administrative hierarchy and not by FKNK. The latter are just sucking from the PL promise machine.
The magistrate was appointed for a reason and that reason being the same one why they were appointed dutinv Mintoffisn times.
Why are you wondering about this, we old booths remember the bombs during the eighties. We were always told that it was the Nationalist who were planting the bombs, the Vatican Nuncio planted the bomb, which went off at the terrace, himself, and the Archbishop at the Mdina residence. Mind you only recently we were told by Northern Ireland person, I presume a die hard Protestant, that the Catholics in Northern Ireland used to murder their own members so as to blame the Protestants.
Tricky one.
Was Aaron Bugeja made magistrate because he was first (alphabetical order) on the waiting list?
[Daphne – No. He was a Taghna Lkoll government appointee along with Toni Abela’s law partner, Charmaine.]
What are you trying to imply? I know Mr Justice Aardvark from my Law course at university and he is a true gentleman, and an upstanding, honest member of society.
Curious little fellow he was too. I seem to recall he had an ant collection which he kept on display in his kitchen…
What if a thousand people all turned up at Castille with a dead bird, demanding to be arrested?
Oh sorry, that was a thousand tampered meters.
The Maltese remake:
“I am Spartacus.”
“It’s true! It’s him! It’s him!”
Magistrate Aaron Bugeja should order the police to investigate the government for finding marjuana plants in roundabouts too.
Total insanity. So there’s no problem with having a minister having 500,000 euros lying around (a crime) but a bird protection organization exhibiting dead birds that were handed over to it is. All because that sleazebag PM of ours has given the kaccaturi scum carte blanche to do what they like.
Isthu Lejburisti, jekk tafu kif (not).
What’s in a slogan.
Obama slogan – Yes we can
MLP slogan – Yes we cunt
This fledgling magistrate does have a sense of humour.
Could you or any of your readers please clarify whether the magistrate can actually order who the police should investigate?
As I understand it, the police forms part of the executive branch of the state. It is also my understanding that according to the Constitution the government, parliament and judiciary are independent powers of the state.
Moreover, the police officer testifying in court is answerable to the Police Commissioner not to the magistrate. He was there to testify on a case brought forward by the police against hunters. If charges are brought against BirdLife members, they will be dealt with in a separate case, possibly before another member of the judiciary. What happens if the police refuse to comply with the magistrate’s instructions?
Finally, how can the BirdLife members feel reassured that the courts will be impartial towards them if their investigation (and possible subsequent arraignment) is being instigated by the same courts?
The powers of magistrates over the police are found in the Criminal Code, Article 541 http://www.justiceservices.gov.mt/DownloadDocument.aspx?app=lom&itemid=8574
Interesting. I wasn’t aware you could petition the courts to order an investigation, Thanks for the pointer.
The Attorney General could also appeal the decision and have it reversed. Something tells me that won’t happen.
Next thing we’ll be seeing FKNK members endowed with power of arrest, arresting BLM members for trespassing and general law-breaking such as carrying a camera or binoculars. Carrying both would mean instant imprisonment.
I’m not surprised. Last December the FKNK bullied our impartial data protection commissioner into fining Birdlife for recording hunters breaking the law: http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2013-12-04/news/birdlife-malta-fined-by-the-commissioner-of-data-protection-3378806785/
Let’s sing together now… Taghna llkoll taghna llkoll.
The magistrate followed the letter of the law but ignored its raison d’être. He had the discretionary powers to say “no, this would be a perverse and malicious prosecution and a waste of court time.” But for some reason he thought he was appointed a judicial robot.
Then there’s this very serious case of Monty Python and the dead parrot. John Cleese should have been nicked by the police and carried off to the nearest prison.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218
You are now under arrest for uploading a sketch which goes against the ending-a-sketch-with-a-silly-ending act.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoGVgj1MtY
Mr Loporto. Your views on this issue are as warped as your views on gay people- where you had claimed that they spread disease .
With this same false logic, the police officers who collected the birds from BirdLife should be charged with possession too.
Under the previous administration, MEPA, OPM and ALE agreed to allow the handling of dead and injured protected species by BirdLife personnel and extremely strict procedures were established for this purpose.
These involved calling MEPA & OPM each time a bird is found, calling ALE, developing and maintaining appropriate records, obtaining, maintaining vet certificates and x-rays of dead birds and the distribution of such reports to the authorities, and the delivery of the birds to its agreed (by BLM, MEPA, OPM) final destination normally either the natural history museum (when dead) or to a rehabilition place when survival is possible …. etc.
BirdLife always strived to follow these procedures meticulously.
The reason for establishing these procedures was not because BirdLife wanted to handle these birds but because the MEPA, OPM and ALE resources were insufficient to cater for the extent of dead and injured protected species found during the peak migration seasons.
Let’s be clear, irregular handling of protected bird species is against the law, but exceptions to the law are made for good causes. An example is in the case of scientific research, and trained BirdLife researchers have licenses to permit bird ringing research activities – so exceptions to this law are standard common practice when its for the general good of the birds concerned.
Technically and anally, the photographer should be charged too, for not reporting a crime. And the editor of the Times website too, for not reporting the photographer for not reporting a crime.
I read this today and thought how real life in 1970s Malta really was more horrible than fiction:
”He recounted his challenge in the Constitutional Court alongside Prof. de Marco just after the 1976 election, when the whole population of the government’s St Vincent de Paul old people’s home – a thousand eligible voters – mysteriously voted Labour.
The judges in the Constitutional Court were replaced within a few hours, during the actual hearing of the case.
“Since the new judges included the father and the brother of the government’s defence lawyers, we decided there was no point in hoping for a fair hearing and dropped the case,” he said.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140725/local/Guido-was-never-on-time-as-he-loved-life-.529114
Everybody is talking about the dead birds in the picture. If one looks at the picture one will see that the six birds held by the Birdlife volunteers are actually very much alive. They are probably injured birds which are being rehabilitated. The only dead bird in the picture in lying at the centre of the table.
Let’s all tweet together now: Il-magistrat ‘twit’, ‘twit’…