Cleared on appeal

An appeal court has cleared a man of threatening his neighbour on the grounds that the words he used did not constitute a threat.

Joseph Gauci of Mosta was originally fined Lm25 for threatening his neighbour, Rita Zammit, on August 30, 2002.

Zammit said Gauci had asked her not to wash her balcony although she was not dropping water on him.

She claimed he threatened her with the words "now you'll see what I'll do" and she replied that he was not scaring her.

But Gauci said that the only thing he "threatened" to do was file a police report.

Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano noted that Zammit had not been scared and "threatening" to take legal action did not constitute a threat as defined by the law.