Author slapped with €100 fine after threatening National Book Council chairman

An author who threatened to make the chairman of the National Book Council “swallow his teeth” has been fined €100 and ordered to keep his distance from the man he threatened.

Andrew Gerald Sciberras, 49, had co-authored the book “Kritika Prattika - L-Ewwel Volum” together with Tarcisio Zarb, which was to be submitted as an entry for last year's National Book Prize.

He had fallen out with Mark Camilleri, chairman of the National Book Council - which awards the National Book Prize - after Sciberras claimed that Camilleri had discriminated against his book.

Sciberras had objected to the fact that before the book was judged and after reassuring him that it qualified for entry in the competition, Camilleri had apparently made disparaging comments about it on Facebook. The comments had spurred the author to vent his spleen in a threateningly-worded email he sent to the Council chairman at around 10.00pm on 17 November.

In an email which Sciberras admitted to having sent, he had threatened to make Camilleri “swallow (your) teeth, one by one,” and called him “trash and a corrupt reject of society.” The email ended with the vague, yet ominous-sounding message: “The sun rises and sets for everyone, today or tomorrow.”

Camilleri had replied to the email, saying the author would do well to seek psychiatric help.

Camilleri had later sent a second email to Sciberras, offering to recommend a good psychiatrist to help him. “Andrew, sincerely, I am not joking,” the reply reads. “I have a contact...a very good psychologist, and she would be very willing to help you on a professional basis. I think she could be very useful for you.”

The replies had led to Sciberras filing a counter-allegation, claiming that Camilleri was making defamatory allegations about him.

Delivering separate judgments in the two cases this morning, magistrate Joe Mifsud held that, as a person holding public office, Camilleri was subject to a higher level of criticism than the man on the street. The facts of the case pointed to Camilleri's comments being at most a contraventional offence, the court held.

Magistrate Mifsud ruled that the reply sent by Camilleri could not be considered as defamatory. Although, the comment in isolation could be seen as “risky and perhaps also defamatory,” the court said it had to be taken in context.

The court noted that Sciberras had filed a complaint before the Ombudsman, but had later withdrawn it, “as a sign of goodwill.”

Addressing the two men, who stood side by side in the dock this morning, the court found Sciberras guilty of offences relating to the misuse of electronic communication equipment and with threatening Camilleri. Sciberras was condemned to pay a fine of €100 ordered not to approach Camilleri for a year against a penalty of €2,000.

The case filed by Sciberras against Camilleri was dismissed.

After judgment was handed down, the men shook hands in court - Camilleri rather less enthusiastically than his would-be aggressor.