An elderly man has been given a suspended prison sentence for writing a Facebook post saying PN MEP Roberta Metsola deserved to be burned alive.

Emmanuel Navarro, 66, was charged last November with threatening Metsola, inciting hated and misusing electronic equipment. He spent six days in jail after his request for bail was turned down during a dramatic court sitting in which Navarro’s daughter fainted and had to be escorted outside.

Navarro pleaded not guilty to the charged but apologised for his Facebook comment, an apology Metsola accepted.

Magistrate Grazio Mercieca today found Navarro guilty of the charges and sentenced him to six months imprisonment suspended for a year.

“I will not comment on the sentence handed down to the person who threatened to burn me alive, except to say that this was a case brought by the police – from my end I had accepted his apology and asked the court that he not be jailed,” Metsola told Lovin Malta. “There is absolutely no space for hate online or in our political discourse and the people who encourage this behaviour should look closely at what they are doing.”

“We cannot accept people spreading hate in our society. My skin is thick enough to take whatever is thrown at me as a representative of the people of Malta and Gozo, but I owe it to all the young women who are looking to get into politics to try to make this step easier for them – that is my duty as a female politician on the front line. Politics should be a battle of ideas not of threats – and I will always stand up to hate and to misogyny.”

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]