Relatives of Labour MEP candidate Steve Ellul – the environment minister’s choice to lead Project Green – have repeatedly been charged for breaking the law in a poachers’ racket, a fact he failed to mention when defending hunters during a debate organised by KNZ.

Clearly pitching for the hunting lobby’s vote in the debate organised by the National Youth Council in the lead-up to European Parliament elections, Ellul argued that independent candidate Arnold Cassola refused to “work with him for Malta” on maintaining hunting “traditions”.

Cassola stated that he would defend Malta’s environment from people like Ellul.

Relatives of Labour MEP candidate Steve Ellul have repeatedly been charged with breaking the law in a poachers’ racket, a fact he failed to mention when defending hunters during the debate.

In 2007, the MEP candidate’s cousin, Kenneth Ellul, known as Kajju, was among four fined for possessing protected bird skins imported from Egypt.

The four suitcases they were carrying were full of bird skins from species such as storks, flamingos and birds of prey such as eagles, falcons and ospreys.

In 2022, Kenneth Ellul’s father (Steve Ellul’s uncle) had his taxidermy licence suspended due to links to an international bird poaching racket.

Mario Ellul was found guilty of breaching wildlife protection rules. He was fined €6,000 and had his licence to stuff birds suspended for two years.

Ellul was among five arrested in 2019 when the police carried out a series of raids on a group of suspected poachers linked to the killing of large protected species in Malta and abroad.

The raids, all carried out on the same August weekend, had yielded more than 700 dead protected birds in what was described as the largest haul in years.

The group travelled to Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe to hunt large protected birds that were then trafficked into Malta.

From eagles to egrets and even flamingos, the dead birds were found wrapped in plastic and stuffed into multiple freezers in homes and makeshift workshops.

Ellul’s relative was charged with breaking a long list of environmental and wildlife regulations as well as holding specimens which had not been registered with the authorities.

Reports state he had been repeatedly caught travelling into the country with protected birds, and searches of his property over the years yielded hundreds of stuffed or dead protected birds.

It is an open secret that Dalli appointed him to Project Green – a failed project – to give Ellul a name in the lead-up to the European Parliament elections. He achieved nothing of note during his term.