Appeals court revokes acquittal in slander case

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano, presiding over the Court of Criminal Appeal, has upheld an appeal filed by the Attorney General, and ordered to have a woman's acquittal on charges of slander be revoked, and the case heard again before a magistrate.

The judgment concerned Maria Tereza Zammit, 46 of Msida, who was acquitted in June 2011 by the Magistrates' Courts of having slandered and threatened Paul Vassallo in Msida.

She was acquitted on the basis of lack of evidence.

According to the Attorney General, Zammit was wrongly acquitted because the wrong procedures at law were applied by the lower Court, and the accused was not even present during for the one-day sitting.

Moreover, the court handed judgement when the prosecution had not even presented its witnesses, including the injured party Paul Vassallo.

In its decree, the lower court had specified that given the absence of both the accused and the victim for the case, despite them both being formally notified about the sitting, there was no evidence to substantiate the prosecution's case which was led by Inspector Jesmond Micallef.

Citing case law, Mr Justice Quintano stressed that no accused may be handed judgement in his or her absence, while witnesses must also be heard.

Quintano ordered that the acquittal be revoked, and ordered for the case to be submitted back to the Magistrates Court for it to be heard from the beginning.