On December 8, the Famagusta Free Territories Court sentenced a 37-year-old Cameroonian citizen to 14 months in prison “for cruelty to kangaroos and illegal residence in the Republic of Cyprus.”
On May 7, 2024, in a parking lot near a residential complex in Derinye, an illegal immigrant from Africa was butchering a kangaroo carcass. When the police appeared, the friend who was helping him ran away. Plastic bags containing dismembered animal parts, an ax and five knives were found in the parking lot.
The detainee explained that the kangaroo carcass was given to him by an acquaintance from Paralimni. The Cameroonian was going to cut up the carcass and eat the meat. In Cyprus, it is not prohibited to eat kangaroo meat. The court's verdict does not allege that the man killed the kangaroo. However, knives and an ax are called weapons of crime.
A citizen of Cameroon has been in Cyprus illegally since 2022, when the authorities refused to grant him political asylum. The Sigma TV channel suggested that he received the carcass from one of the farms where kangaroos are raised illegally. The police assured that no crime against animals will go unpunished.
