A 23-year-old Mosta man was today charged with having shot a booted eagle yesterday morning. A visibly restless and tearful Justin Chetcuti pleaded not guilty of the charges brought against him, in a court presided by magistrate Monica Vella. The accused, a self-employed plasterer, covered his face with a jacket blazer as he entered court today, one day after authorities said that poachers had tried to shoot down eagles on four separate occasions over 24 hours. Although Mr Chetcuti's charge sheet made no mention of the location of the alleged crime, BirdLife Malta had yesterday said that one of its teams had filmed an eagle being shot at in Tal-Virtu', "leading police to retrieve the carcass of a booted eagle and identify a suspect". Prosecutors in court today said that there was video evidence of Mr Chetcuti carrying a shotgun and dumping cartridges into the grass. ALE officers subsequently found the cartridges, although Mr Chetcuti denied any involvement. Two BirdLife teams and officers from the Administrative Law Enforcement section had witnessed the eagle being shot at and fall to the ground, they said. The incident happened at around 9.15am. One of the cartridges...
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