A housewife’s Facebook comment that members of civil society group Repubblika deserved to be “bulldozed” earned her a conditional discharge, a fine and some words of advice when she appeared in court on Thursday.

Sandra Micallef was summoned to face charges for inciting violence against members of the NGO who were staging a 72-hour sit-in protest outside the police headquarters in Floriana last October over their claim of police “inaction” on former minister Konrad Mizzi. 

Mizzi was one of the public figures whose face was splashed across a banner hung on the police headquarters’ front gate, along with that of prime minister Robert Abela, former prime minister Joseph Muscat and police commissioner Angelo Gafà.

The NGO had intensified its campaign against the so-called “untouchables” and that was the first time in four years that it had been denied police protection, testified Repubblika president Robert Aquilina.

“That was because the commissioner himself featured in that banner,” said Aquilina.

Even when they asked a police patrol for protection, they were told that their orders were to patrol and not stay on fixed watch.

Aquilina said he had pointed to the police that threats had increased and it was not right for them to be abandoned in this way.

On the second night of the protest, vice-president Alessandra Dee Crespo had alerted him to a Facebook comment which read that Repubblika members deserved “to be bulldozed”.

The offensive post was subsequently pulled down but charges were issued against Micallef for hate speech as well as misuse of electronic communication equipment.

The woman, though first pleading not guilty, soon registered an admission.

Her lawyer Sharon Calleja explained that her client was a “housewife” with a clean criminal record and not violent. She had never stepped inside court.

She was fully repentant for her action and publicly apologised.

“She never meant to hurt anyone,” stressed the lawyer, her apology taken up by parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi who said that his clients were not “after the pound of flesh”

“I appreciate that you came here to apologise,” started off Magistrate Ian Farrugia, seizing the opportunity to send out a message to all social media users. 

“As citizens you have a right to participate within society. But not to breach the law,” said the magistrate, explaining the potentially harmful repercussions the accused’s comment might have triggered in other persons with a “violent tendency”.

The woman standing silently before him nodded in understanding. 

After weighing all evidence and circumstances the court conditionally discharged Micallef for one year and fined her €400, payable in €50 monthly instalments.

The court declared that although it believed in sanctions and punishment, it lent more weight to the message being sent out.