On March 27, 2008, Lowell was sentenced to a two-year jail term, suspended for four years, due to his conviction on three charges of racial hatred, and one charge of insulting the President of Malta. He won the case relating to insults hurled at the President of Malta on grounds of freedom of speech but was also ordered to pay a fine of 500 Euros for racist terminology against Jews. Judge Quintano ruled that while a politician is free, this freedom is limited by the fact that Jews make up a part of the Maltese society and that no matter how small that part is, such talk constitutes racial hatred.