A simmering dispute between two men, bickering over a woman, landed one of them in court on Tuesday following death threats he allegedly sent on Facebook.

Hagen Azzopardi, 29 of Msida, was tracked down by the cybercrime unit as the suspect behind the threatening messages allegedly sent from a fake Facebook profile in March.

Azzopardi was out on bail following a hit-and-run incident at Luqa in July last year, when he had allegedly run over and grievously injured the same man who was allegedly threatened.

On that occasion, Azzopardi had been arrested shortly afterwards by police who, acting on eyewitness reports, had tracked him down near the Junior College in the company of his 19-year old girlfriend.

In July he pleaded not guilty upon his arraignment and was granted bail while proceedings continued before the Magistrates’ Courts.

On Tuesday he pleaded not guilty to having allegedly sent death threats to his rival, breaching a protection order and breaching bail conditions.

Defence lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri pointed out that the accused had apparently reacted to ongoing provocative messages from the other man.

This argument was not rebutted by the prosecution who explained that investigations were still ongoing.

Debono further argued in favour of the accused’s presumption of innocence.

Prosecuting Inspector Elton Taliana did not object to bail as long as adequate conditions were imposed.

After hearing submissions by both parties , Magistrate Audrey Demicoli upheld the request for bail against a deposit of €500, a personal guarantee of €2,000, the daily signing of the bail book as well as a curfew.

Lawyer Rene’ Darmanin appeared for the victim.