Developer Michael Stivala loses libel case instituted against Arnold Cassola

A magistrate has ruled against Michael Stivala in a libel case he had filed against Momentum Chairperson Arnold Cassola, who claimed Stivala's employment of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was payback time

24 April 2025, 12:14pm
by Kurt Sansone

1 min read

A magistrate has ruled that Arnold Cassola (pictured) did not defame developer Michael Stivala when he wrote that the latter's engagement of Joseph Muscat as his consultant was payback time

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Developer Michael Stivala has lost the libel case he had instituted three years ago against Momentum Chairperson Arnold Cassola.

Stivala had felt aggrieved when Cassola wrote in Facebook posts that the employment of Joseph Muscat as a consultant was payback time for the illegalities Stivala's companies had been allowed to perpetrate when Muscat was prime minister.

The court, presided by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, ruled against Stivala's line of reasoning.

Stivala had also tried to argue in court that Cassola's Facebook posts on 4 November 2022 had caused his companies' shares and bonds to depreciate by millions of euros.

Cassola successfully argued that what made the Stivala company shares and bonds depreciate were not his posts but the revelation on the previous 30 October that Stivala had employed as his consultant "the 2019 OCCRP corrupt politician of the year".

Lawyers Eve Borg Costanzi and Matthew Cutajar appeared for Cassola while Vincent Galea, who is also Muscat's lawyer in other cases, appeared for Michael Stivala.

Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday. He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...