Man arrested and charged for killing a snake in north Cyprus

Remember when we told you in one of our previous posts about a snake found in a student apartment in Hapsolat that killing a snake in north Cyprus is against the law? well some of you doubted but here it is.

Criminal action has been taken against a Turkish Cypriot man who killed a black snake, which is under protection in the country following a complaint to the police, the first of such case. 

Under the the Environment Law, it is illegal to kill a snake in the TRNC. The law incriminating the killing of snakes in the TRNC came into force in 2012.

According to a statement by the Taşkent Nature Park in Haspolat, a citizen who killed the black cohosh on Friday was punished with legal action, the first time a person would face legal action for killing a snake.

The park management in a statement reminded that all snakes in the country are protected in accordance with the regulations under the Environment Law. 

In the statement, it was emphasized that this event was a milestone. “All snakes in our country are under protection under the Environment Law and the regulations under it, and it is a crime to deliberately kill and harm them.

In this incident, although all kinds of explanations, warnings and suggestions were made on the phone to the people who called the 1190 Wildlife Support Line, and even though our teams arrived at the scene within 15 minutes, the snake was ignorantly killed by a person there.

In a statement on the matter, it was stated that after the Taşkent Nature Park teams called the Lefkosia Police Department and made a complaint, the police went to the scene and identified the criminal, and then the Environmental Protection Department officials filed a complaint about the criminal on behalf of the state.

After the criminal was identified, the Environmental Protection Department also went to the authorized institution and to the Police to file a complaint about the criminal on behalf of the state.

“We would like to thank the Environmental Protection Agency for their sensitivity in protecting wild animals of our country and enforcing the laws”, the statement said.