Zurrieq mayor Ignatius Farrugia was released from prison this morning two hours after an appeals court erroneously sentenced him to four days in jail time for harassing blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2013.

Mr Farrugia had been previously convicted of harassment, fined €2,400 and ordered to stay away from Ms Caruana Galizia for a year. Mr Farrugia had appealed the judgment, with the guilty verdict being confirmed this morning by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti.

However, an editing error meant that Mr Farrugia's sentence was mistakenly converted to jail time. Upon noticing the error, Mr Justice Grixti immediately petitioned the President to pardon Mr Farrugia and release him.

The Attorney General agreed with the request and the Justice Minister advised the President to grant the pardon, which was issued immediately. 

Sources said Mr Farrugia was also pardoned the €2,400 fine.

Mr Farrugia was represented by Marion Camilleri from Franco Debono's legal office.  

Dr Debono commended Mr Justice Grixti for quickly rectifying the error, saying "The judge showed great courage and a sense of justice."

Ms Caruana Galizia.

Ms Caruana Galizia had testified that she was forced to seek refuge in a convent after Mr Farrugia began following her during the feast of St Joseph in Rabat.

Zurrieq mayor Ignatius Farrugia.

According to her testimony, Mr Farrugia chanted the PL’s 2013 electoral slogan Malta Taghna Lkoll at her and encouraged others to harass her. Ms Caruana Galizia said she could hardly walk down the road.

In January 2014, a court had found Mr Farrugia and two others, Maria and Kimberly Vassallo, guilty of harassment. They were each fined €2,400. Ms Caruana Galizia and Mr Farrugia have a history of bad blood, with the former having written about the Zurrieq mayor and published photos of his on her blog.

In her original testimony, she had said “God forbid” that she did not write about him, considering that he posted pictures of himself dressed up as a bride on Facebook. 

In a separate case, Ms Caruana Galizia had been cleared of defaming Maria and Kimberly Vassallo, with a court finding that her blog posts about the two constituting fair comment.