Three hunters from Lecce nei Marsi (AQ) have been fully acquitted of poaching by the Court of Avezzano as there is no substance to the fact. According to judge Stefano Venturini, there was no certain evidence of the three being hunting.
The judge for preliminary investigation remanded them for the facts occurred on the night of February 2, 2005 when the forest rangers of Trasacco chased and blocked the three men along with a fourth man who later took a plea bargain. During search, rifles, night visors, binoculars and wild animals’ blood stains were found in the hunters’ cars. The three were charged for hunting in a ban period, at night with snow on the ground and for having used devices to communicate among them and night visors. All this was aggravated by the fact they were stopped in the buffer zone of Abruzzo National Park.
In addition to procedural aspects leading to the hunters’ acquittal, in fact all the pieces of evidence seemed to give no rise to doubts about the guilt of the three, the fact raises concern over widespread poaching in areas that are frequented by the Marsican brown bear (Abruzzo NP, Sirente – Velino, Simbruini – Ernici, in particular) and discouragement of park and forest rangers and Province police for the difficulties to entrust poachers to justice.