A man who threatened Nationalist Party MEP Roberta Metsola by invoking the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has apologised in court and said that it was not his intention to bring harm to anyone.

Josef Farrugia had posted a comment on a Facebook thread saying that Metsola better be careful or she'll end up like assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

"Toqghod attenta ghax bhal galizzja tisspica (sic)," he had written. 

Farrugia has since then deactivated his Facebook account and apologised in court. "It was never my intention to cause harm to anyone or to incite violence on Roberta Metsola," he said, and immediately pleaded guilty to the crime of causing someone to fear violence via online harassment. 

"While the court understands that everyone is within his right to express himself, nobody should be made to feel threatened or should instigate the impression that someone ought to be murdered in the way Daphne Caruana Galizia has been," presiding magistrate Joe Mifsud said.

"Daphne Caruana Galizia should have never ended up the way she has. She has been missed by her family and left a serious wound in our nation."

A five-year court protection order for Metsola was issue while the accused was conditionally discharged for a period of three years. 

Joseph Scerri was prosecuting officer.

Angele Formosa was defence counsel.