A husband today was charged with threatening to kill his wife or employing someone to kill her. The names of both the husband and wife, both of whom are lawyers and are undergoing separation proceedings, have been withheld by the court.

The court heard that the threats were made in a car after the wife picked up the husband from the airport on 16 June. The defence, led by Dr Veronique Dalli, argued that there were no witnesses and it was just her word against his, so there were no grounds not to grant the man bail.

The prosecution said the man would not need to be remanded in custody as long as a protection order with strict conditions was issued by the court.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, who presided over the case, granted the protection order with the conditions of the man not entering into his wife’s property despite them living near each other and having three children together, one of them 14 years old.

The Magistrate addressed the victim and the accused and asked them why they couldn’t just be adults and respect their children.

Lawyer Dr Peter Fenech, who appeared as parte civile for the victim, pointed out that there was online correspondence that also needed to stop. The defence argued that it was coming from both of them while the accused raised his hand in protest saying that he emailed his wife to tell her to stop contacting him.

The accused was granted bail with a personal guarantee of €2,500 and the requested protection order was issued limiting communication to the parties’ lawyers, as they currently have other pending cases related to their separation proceedings.

The prosecution was led by Inspector Godwin Scerri.