Joseph Muscat drops libel case against lawyer who said he 'blew up' Daphne Caruana Galizia

Joseph Muscat’s has dropped his libel case against lawyer Christian Grima after the lawyer clarified that the social media comment made back in 2020 was not made to accuse Muscat of being the person behind the killing of journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in a car bomb attack in October 2017.

The case was dropped on Monday by Muscat after Grima told the court that his comment was not meant to be understood that Muscat placed the bomb himself.

The libel suit was opened when the lawyer made comments in reaction to a video of Michelle Muscat, the former PM’s wife, where she spoke about “what happened” to Caruana Galizia.

In May 2020, the lawyer wrote in response to the video: “What happened to her? Your husband blew her up. That’s what happened”.

Following this, Muscat filed a defamation suit against Grima, who was also a former schoolmate of his, stating that he implied that he murdered her, clearly giving rise to defamation.

However, last Monday, Grima explained how his comment was not meant to be taken in a literal sense.

In 2022, Grima’s laywers had already made the same clarification in the hearing of the same case declaring that “with his writing and remark, he did not want to imply that Muscat personally placed a bomb on the car door of Daphne Caruana Galizia or pressed a button that detonated the same bomb that killed her”.

He only meant that back in 2017, Muscat’s government had fostered an environment of unlawfulness and violence that led to the murder of the journalist, a statement which was reflected in the public inquiry’s findings of the murder.

Grima was represented by lawyer Karl Grech. Muscat was represented by lawyer Pawlu Lia.