Court of Appeals confirms Keith Schembri libel win

The court of appeals has confirmed a libel decision in which PN organ In-Nazzjon was found to have libeled the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, in an article published in November 2014.

In the sentence handed down by Judge Anthony Ellul, the court of appeals said that insinuations in the article tried to cast a dark shadow over Schembri in an article that he would not have been mentioned at all, if he had not been the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

In-Nazzjon had ran a report on how Ryan Schembri, the fugitive former co-owner of More supermarkets, has been in telephone contact with a “particular person” and reassured that he and his family are safe.

However, the newspaper published the photo of Keith Schembri alongside that of Ryan Schembri as the two happen to be cousins and the newspaper alleged that the two had common business interests in Libya and that the OPM’s Chief of Staff was aware of the phone call his cousin made.

Keith Schembri had denied the allegations and said the report was “false and made-up.”