The police are investigating threats of violence made against Franco Debono.
The threats were made against the lawyer in a group chat on popular messaging platform WhatsApp by Nationalist Party activist Charles Zammit.
Zammit left a voice note – a recorded audio message – in the group chat which hosts dozens of people, mostly Nationalist Party supporters.
“I won’t rest until I smash his face,” the audio recording, heard by Times of Malta, plays.
The police have already spoken with Zammit and sources said that he was set to be charged with making threats against Debono.
Replying to questions yesterday, a police spokesperson said that investigations are ongoing.
Writing on Facebook, Debono said that he was informed that the police would likely charge Zammit with hate speech after he had instigated physical violence against him.
“These aren’t spoofs. These are real threats and ugly hate speech,” Debono wrote on Facebook.
He added that it appeared Zammit had not been encouraged by the other members of the group. In fact, there had been some who had criticised him. The threat of violence was made by Zammit as the group chat discussed how Debono, a former Nationalist MP, had been named by PN leader Bernard Grech as a prospective candidate to chair the Broadcasting Authority.
Last week, Times of Malta reported that Debono was one of three names submitted by the PN to chair the Broadcasting Authority but all three have been rejected by the prime minister.
Debono had served as a Nationalist MP during the 2008 to 2013 legislature but ended that term after a series of clashes with then-party leader Lawrence Gonzi and former home affairs minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.
Scenes of Debono speaking in a raised voice at the recording studio of popular current events show Xarabank were being discussed in the WhatsApp chat when Zammit made the threatening remarks.
Incidentally, Xarabank presenter Peppi Azzopardi recently came out in support of Debono’s nomination to the Broadcasting Authority, saying he would make a good chairman.