A man has admitted charges of hate speech against Valletta Cultural Agency chair Jason Micallef after making abusive comments towards him on Facebook. 

Michael Borg, 68, from Gżira described Micallef as "dirty" and a “trash can full of rubbish” in a post that also included a stream of expletives. 

He was asked to pay a fine of €150 and warned by the court against committing another crime in the next nine months. Borg, who was also charged with computer misuse, apologised to Micallef in court.   

In February, Labour's former general secretary filed a police report on Borg and three others for comments made against him on social media under a post by Rule of Law NGO Respublika.   

Those cases are set to appear in front of the court in the coming days. 

Another of the comments against Micallef read: "Look how powerful Gaddafi was, how powerful Saddam Hussein, and how powerful [Ceaușescu] was, you get the gist... be scared be very scared”.  

Jason Micallef has a tense relationship with Repubblika. On Monday he described their demonstrations as “only intentioned to maim shops, bars, restaurants and tourism in Valletta”.  

He has also described the NGO’s co-founder Robert Aquilina as an "agent of hate". Aquilina later described Micallef’s comments’ as "savage".    

Micallef is represented by lawyers Daniel Attard and Ishmael Psaila.  

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