A "customer care" employee at a club in Paceville was this afternoon granted bail against a personal guarantee of €3,000 after he pleaded not guilty to seriously injuring a man following an argument over politics.

Luciano Galea also pleaded not guilty to breaking the victim's spectacles, working as a bouncer without a licence, and breaching the peace.

Nationalist Party supporter Salvatore Baldacchino and Mr Galea came to blows in Paceville at around 4 a.m.

Mr Baldacchino claimed that Mr Galea punched him in the face purely because he supported the party in government but Mr Galea said he never hit the victim who turned up at the club where he worked with a face already bloodied.

Sources said Mr Galea claimed he refused him entry because of the state he was in.

Police Inspector Godwin Scerri said that Mr Galea had no licence to operate as a bouncer. Mr Scerri said he was not a bouncer but worked in customer care.

Lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi and Robert Galea argued that their client's last offence was 20 years ago, when he was a teenager.

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