Joseph Muscat files for libel over social media post claiming he blew up Caruana Galizia

Joseph Muscat has filed a libel suit against lawyer Christian Grima over a Facebook post that claimed the former prime minister blew up Daphne Caruana Galizia.

It was Muscat, who announced the legal action on Monday, insisting that Grima had crossed the line.

“I believe in freedom of expression even when at times it can be offensive, unjust or completely wrong… However, sometimes, a line is crossed that cannot be allowed to go unanswered. A certain Dr Christian Grima alleged on Facebook that I, to use his own words, exploded Ms Daphne Caruana Galizia. As is clear from all the facts, this is totally false. This is why I filed libel proceedings against Dr Grima,” Muscat wrote.

The former prime minister was referring to a Facebook post Grima put up eight days ago when he shared a post by MZPN that was uploaded in December 2019 with a clip from an interview Michelle Muscat gave on Xtra in August 2018.

In his comment accompanying the clip, Grima said with reference to Caruana Galizia’s murder: “What happened to her? Your husband exploded her, Michelle. That is what happened.”

The post by lawyer Christian Grima accusing Muscat of blowing Daphne Caruana Galizia up

In the clip, Michelle Muscat said she was sorrier for Daphne’s murder than her family because she now had to live with the “lies” the journalist had written about her.

The interview was carried out shortly after the conclusions of the Egrant magisterial inquiry were published, showing how allegations made by Caruana Galizia were untrue. In April 2017, Caruana Galizia had claimed that Egrant, a Panama company, belonged to Michelle Muscat.

In an immediate rebuttal on his Facebook wall, Grima said that the last time he met Muscat was at school during a fund-raising activity for a friends who died in an accident. “Now we will meet again in court. I crossed the line, he told me, the one who never crossed it. The one who does not even know how to draw it,” Grime said.

Seven men have been arrested and charged with Caruana Galizia’s murder and one of them, Vince Muscat, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The other cases, including that of alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech, are ongoing.

An eighth person, Melvin Theuma, who acted as a middleman between Fenech and three men who carried out the hit, was granted a presidential pardon to tell all about the murder.

Muscat had to resign from prime minister in December 2019 after Fenech was arraigned and court testimony drew connections between the businessman and the prime minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.