Former Labour candidate fails in attempt to deny part in 1984 Libyan PM assassination plot

Judgements in three separate criminal libel cases filed by former labour candidate Edgar Bonnici Cachia against Daphne Caruana Galizia have been handed down this morning, all of them acquitting the journalist of any wrongdoing over her stories detailing Bonnici Cachia's involvement in a failed assassination attempt against the Libyan Prime Minister in the 1980s.

The criminal libel complaints were made in 2014 after a series of articles delving into Bonnici Cachia's shady background appeared on Caruana Galizia's personal blog. The articles had been published partly as a reaction to a defamation case filed against Fr. Charles Fenech on Bonnici Cachia's complaint. She had reminded her readers that that “Bonnici Cachia himself has a seriously bad criminal record,” including a conviction for defrauding an elderly lady in his care, as well as the fact that he had been jailed in Egypt in the 1980s for his part in a plot to murder the Libyan Prime Minister of the time, Abd al-Hamid al-Bakush who had been overthrown by Muammar Gaddafi and had fled to Egypt.

Bonnici Cachia, who had been a Labour Party candidate in the 1981 general elections, was reported to have spent six months in an Egyptian prison in 1984 when the assassination attempt had failed. He was subsequently deported to Malta but was not imprisoned here.

Bonnici Cachia had taken exception to the assassination plot allegation and filed for libel. The assertion that the plaintiff had been a Labour Party candidate in the 1981 general elections was not contested by the plaintiff, but he denied ever being accused of attempting to kill al- Bakush.

But Caruana Galizia's defence had exhibited copies of articles published in the New York Times in 1984, mentioning Edgar Bonnici Cachia by name as one of the assassins sent by Libya, together with Tony Gill, Godfrey Shiner and Romeo Schembri.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, also noted that Bonnici Cachia had been convicted of fraud in 2010 and jailed for 16 months. Before that, in 2001, he was condemned to pay a total of around €30,000 in unpaid fixed-line telephony bills – a judgement that was confirmed on appeal, as well as being ordered to pay approximately €3,000 in unpaid mobile phone bills in a separate case. Other judgements against the plaintiff exhibited by Caruana Galizia, included one evicting him from a San Gwann garage after the non-payment of water and electricity bills. A newspaper report from 1981, reporting that Bonnici Cachia had been jailed for two days and fined for failing to pay National Insurance contributions for an employee wrapped up the defence's evidence.

The court said it had no doubt that the defendant had done her homework with respect to the information she published and this was also evident from the documentation that she had exhibited.

It also noted that the Director of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had exhibited a file containing correspondence sent by the plaintiff to the Maltese and Egyptian authorities at the time, in which Bonnici Cachia himself mentions his arrest.

“I present with respect the following: 1. That the security police arrested me on 23 October 1984, when I arrived at Cairo Airport...” begins one. “Don't believe what the international gazzettes say about us,” another letter reads. “We are victims of a Maltese mad person. I not mention the name of this person lie on us now, but when I come every one know the name of this person.” [sic]

One case of the three was thrown out of court, after it was noted that neither the original criminal complaint, nor a copy of the article had been exhibited. With regards to the remaining two libel cases, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale pointed out that the role of the journalist is to bring facts and information that are relevant to current affairs to the attention of a readership. The information in question was relevant because the complainant had been involved in a separate story over serious legal accusations being levelled at a member of the clergy, which had been receiving a lot of media attention at the time.

Caruana Galizia was cleared of the charges.