Satirist Matthew Bonanno cleared of 'carpet bomb' threat against River of Love

Satirist Matthew Bonanno was cleared of having made online threats towards Gordon Manche, who is the pastor of the evangelical group ‘River of Love’, when he insinuated that the group, as well as Buġibba, should be carpet bombed.

Bonanno, evidently, did not have the means to order carpet bombing, allowing the court to rule that the threat was not “credible” or even “executable”. His words were empty and lacked legal backing.

Magistrate Kevan Azzopardi added that Bonanno’s claims were towards ‘River of Love’ and not its pastor, insinuating that not all comments made with regard to an institution are deliberately attacking its head.

The owner of satirical website ‘Bis-Serjeta’ commented on the judgment saying, “I’m glad common sense prevailed and the courts saw my comment as the obvious joke it was. In my opinion, the whole thing was a massive waste of time and resources for myself, the police and the courts.”

The case stems from events on 4 January 2022 when Manche lodged police reports alleging that comments posted on Bonanno’s personal profile page made him feel threatened.

In this Facebook comment, Bonanno stated that the religious group should be “treated exactly like ISIS.” Matthew Bugeja replied, saying Malta couldn’t afford “a sustained aerial bombing campaign on Żebbuġ” (River of Love’s location). Bonanno replied, “then carpet bomb, two birds with one stone.”

Manche reported feeling threatened due to Bonanno’s reputation and decided to only post comments under his personal profile and not under the name of ‘Bis-Serjeta’.

Manche noted that the Facebook comments were made just days after Paulina Dembska’s murder in Sliema. The accused in that case, Abner Aquilina, had participated in River of Love meetings and told police that the devil had instructed him to “kill more people.”

Manche denied any connection to the crime and also initiated legal proceedings against Times of Malta, seeking the removal of news reports about the incident on their website.

Bonanno and Bugeja were charged with the misuse of electronic equipment and making online threats. However, they were cleared of the first charge after the police failed to provide evidence on the intended use of the electronic equipment, and therefore could not prove it was misused.

After making use of case law, Bugeja and Bonanno’s online threats could not have been deemed realistic according to the magistrate. Moreover, the magistrate noted that Manche did not feel threatened and continued to live normally.

Lawyers Dean Hili and Andrew Sciberras represented Bonanno, while Stephen Tonna Lowell appeared for Bugeja.