Silvio Debono's 19 libel cases against Daphne Caruana Galizia put off

Silvio Debono's 19 libel cases against Daphne Caruana Galizia will continue to be heard in December after the lawyer representing the slain journalist asked for a postponement.

Lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel, handling the Caruana Galizia family brief, informed the court that he was asking for an adjournment so as to update himself on the course to be followed since the assassination of his client two weeks ago.

Lawyer William Cuschieri, assisting the applicant, informed the court that he was in a position to present affidavits on the suits.

The cases were adjourned to December. Neither Silvio Debono nor members of the Caruana Galizia family were present in court today.

The cases were filed last March after Caruana Galizia tore into Debono's db Group, a hotel chain, after the latter clashed with Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil. The incident happened after the PN came out strongly against the sale of the Institute of Tourism Studies in Paceville to the db Group. Debono's chief executive had privately asked the PN leader to return money the group had donated to the party, a message Busuttil interpreted as blackmail and which he read out on Net TV.

The outburst led the db Group to lift the lid on a scheme concocted by the PN through which it had asked private companies to donate money to the party under the guise of false invoices. The party denied the claim, insisting the invoices were legitimate and issued in relation to services rendered by the party's media company. The PN has so far refused to publish the invoices, claiming commercial sensitivity.

Subsequently, Caruana Galizia hit out at Debono on her blog, calling him a "corrupt operator" and accusing him of using a company in the British Virgin Islands to invoice time-share clients of his hotel chain.