An Eritrean who sent a text message to an Ethiopian man, threatening to kill him and challenging him to fight so they could go to prison together was today fined €200.

Siem Iseyas Araya, 25, who resides in Msida, told Magistrate Miriam Hayman that such a threat was acceptable in his home country and he did not know that it was illegal in Malta. The magistrate replied that such a threat was unacceptable in any democratic country.

He pleaded guilty to the misuse of communications equipment when he sent a text message to a man with whom he had had an argument saying he wanted to kill him.

The text messages were sent on Friday last week. The court heard that the two men knew each other from Tiger Bar in Marsa.

Mr Araya was also charged over another incident that happened on April 7 when he punched the Ethiopian as he was cleaning his front porch.

Magistrate Hayman fined Mr Araya €200.

Police Inspector Jason Sultana prosecuted while lawyer Christopher Chircop was defence counsel.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.