A 66-year-old pensioner who posted an inflammatory comment to Facebook suggesting MEP Roberta Metsola should be "burned alive" was today granted bail. 

Naxxar resident Emmanuel Navarro was charged last week with misuse of electronic equipment, inciting hatred, insulting and threatening Dr Metsola and breaching an earlier conditional discharge.

He was initially denied bail but was allowed to return home today after retracting the comment and apologising, with his lawyer Franco Debono noting that this was "without any prejudice to his guilt or otherwise." 

Towards the end of the sitting, Mr Navarro's daughter fainted and was escorted out of the courtroom.

READ: 'You should be burned alive,' man wrote about Metsola

Dr Metsola, who had filed a police report against Mr Navarro, told court today that the Facebook post had put her family in danger. 

“I am a mother of four and I feel that [the Facebook post] put them in danger,” she said, since it could have spurred someone to take up the threat. 

PN MEPs, including Dr Metsola, had previously come under fire for their role in a rule of law debate held at the European Parliament following the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“Someone doing their job in the European Parliament, who stands up and speaks about the rule of law...I don’t think that someone should be threatened in this way,” Dr Metsola said today before magistrate Grazio Mercieca.

Defence lawyer Franco Debono, assisting Mr Navarro together with Legal Procurator Peter Paul Zammit, told the court that their client wished to apologise for what he had posted and was retracting the comment “without any prejudice to his guilt or otherwise.”

A request for bail was upheld against a deposit of €500 and a personal guarantee of €2000, with a Protection Order in favour of the MEP being renewed by the court.

The case continues in December.

Lawyer Franco Debono and LP Peter Paul Zammit were defence counsel. Lawyers Jason Azzopardi and Karol Aquilina appeared parte civile.