Nazzjon editor and journalist ordered to pay damages to PM's Chief of Staff

In-Nazzjon editor Nathaniel Attard and journalist Joseph Mikallef have been condemned to pay €5,000 in libel damages for insinuating that Keith “Casco” Schembri, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, had somehow had a hand in the failed business ventures of his cousin, Ryan Schembri, the fugitive former director of More Supermarkets and knew where he was.

More Supermarkets, had gone bankrupt in 2014, owing some €40 million it did not have, to a string of creditors. Ryan Schembri had fled to Sicily by catamaran, together with his wife and children.

In-Nazzjon had reported sources close to Schembri as saying that the young entrepreneur had opened a supermarket in Palm City, in Tripoli, Libya and from then on started trading goods from Europe to North Africa through his company Cassar & Schembri Marketing Ltd.

Before his OPM appointment, Keith Schembri had set up a flourishing paper business – Kasco Ltd – that also had strong ties to the Libyan market.

It was such tenuous ties that were played upon by Mikallef in a frontpage article published by In-Nazzjon in November 2014, titled “Someone knows where he is.”

It was accompanied by pictures of the two men and gave the impression that Keith Schembri was involved in his cousin's shady business dealings. The picture bore the cryptic caption “some are assured of the location where he, his wife and son, are.”

Mikallef had testified in his defence, insisting that he didn't wan't to imply that this person was Keith Schembri. He had told the court that employees of Ryan Schembri's had told him that the two cousins were very close and would exchange contacts they had established in Tripoli.

In his sentence handed down today, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale however, said that he was in no doubt that the impression that Keith Schembri knew where his cousin was hiding would be given to the ordinary reader. He pointed out that the article had gone on to say that the Schembris had strong ties to Libyan businessmen and that “directly or indirectly, there were other big Maltese players involved.”

Depasquale was strident in his criticism of the article,which it said was motivated by the intention to harm Schebmri – a political adversary of the Nationalist Party and adding that this type of journalist did more harm than good to the profession in general.

The defendants ordered to pay €5,000 in damages to Keith Schembri.