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A maintenance worker, placed under preventive arrest after posting inflammatory comments against the police, has been granted bail pending judgment after admitting to his wrongdoing.

Josef Vincenti, a 31-year old from Żabbar, had been arraigned 12 days ago following criminal investigations sparked off by his comments on Facebook which were considered as overstepping the limits of freedom of expression.

When commenting upon an article published on social media about the use of speed guns by traffic police, the man had said that people were right to run over police officers and drive off, clearly referring to the incident of PC Simon Schembri.

Read: Man behind bars for Facebook comments against the police

Upon his arraignment the man had pleaded not guilty to instigation to commit an offence, incitement to disobey the law and to racial hatred, as well as the use of electronic communications apparatus to make threats.

He was further charged with having breached the conditions of an earlier bail decree, besides allegedly being a recidivist.

During the first hearing of the case on Monday, the man, assisted by a new defence team made up of Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia, entered a guilty plea and a fresh request for bail.

After hearing submissions by both parties, the court, presided over by magistrate Rachel Montebello, upheld the request against a deposit of €2,000, a personal guarantee of €10,000 and an order to sign the bail book on a daily basis, as well as to abide by a curfew between 11pm and 7am.

The court also upheld a request by the defence for a pre-sentencing report, while issuing a provisional Supervision Order in respect of the accused.

Inspector John Spiteri prosecuted.

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