The summer weather seems to have added to the heat of the divorce debate for two men who threatened to kill Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and harm the head of the Yes campaign, Deborah Schembri, on the social network site Facebook.

The men, Charlie Mangion, 58, a convicted murderer known as Iż-Żubina of San Ġwann and Giuseppe Cutajar, 62, of Marsa, who are friends, separately made the comments on their Facebook pages.

They yesterday pleaded guilty to making the threats on July 14 and in the preceding weeks.

In a series of posts, the men said they would kill Pullicino Orlando, the MP behind the divorce Bill about to be approved by Parliament, and harm Deborah Schembri. They also said they would harm Nationalist MP and former minister Jesmond Mugliett.

Mr Cutajar’s defence lawyer, Martin Fenech, told the court his client was very sorry for the incident and did not mean to harm anyone. Furthermore, “he is unable to use a computer or Facebook” and got carried away. He was not a bully or aggressive and, thus, the case merited a suspended jail term or even a period of probation.

Lawyer Marion Camilleri, for Mr Mangion, said her client formally apologised for his actions, adding that, in a case like this, prison was not the ideal punishment.

Police Inspector Joseph Mercieca informed the court Mr Mugliett did not want to prosecute. The prosecuting officer felt a suspended jail term would be enough.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri handed down a six-month jail term suspended for 18 months and fined them €200 each.

Mr Mangion’s last run-in with the law goes back to the early 1970s. On December 18, 1975 when he was 21, he was jailed for 14 years after he was found guilty in a trial by jury by eight votes to one of murdering 17-year-old Spaniard Josè Luis Monroy Garcia.

He had also been found guilty of the attempted murder of another Spaniard, Ricardo Yague Llorente, 27, in St Dominic Street, Valletta in the early hours of the morning on May 21, 1974.

Mr Garcia, a student working as a seaman on the tanker Lord Mount Stephen, was found in Merchants Street corner with St Dominic Street in a pool of blood with three stab wounds to the chest. His colleague, Mr Llorente, was found nearby, wounded crying out for help.

The victims had been drinking in Strait Street.