Court slams 'amateurish' libel case by Vince Farrugia

Former GRTU director general Vince Farrugia has lost a criminal libel case which he had filed against the editor of l-Orizzont, after it was noted that he had not even identified the offending passage and had only turned up for one sitting .

Farrugia had accused Orizzont editor Josef Caruana of libel in an article titled “Min hu ġurdien, Cens?” (which,loosely translated, means “Who’s the rat, Vincent?”), published in the paper in February 2012.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale was not impressed by the fact that Farrugia had never testified to indicate the defamatory passage. In fact the former GRTU head had attended a grand total of one sitting, out of the eleven which had been held.

The court observed that this alone was a clear indication of the lack of interest by the complainant, who had not even confirmed his complaint on oath before the court.

It appears that, together with his complaint, Farrugia had presented the court with a copy of the article  -the entire text of which was highlighted. This did not constitute an indication to the satisfaction of the court as to what the plaintiff felt to be defamatory, held the court, adding that neither had Farrugia brought any evidence linking the accused with the position of editor of l-Orizzont at the time the article was published.

Although the court had later heard GRTU president Paul Abela give evidence regarding the case, it felt that Farrugia’s lack of interest in the case was clear and this meant that the case did not merit the court’s attention.

Not mincing his words, Magistrate Depasquale described the plaintiff’s management of this criminal libel case as amateurish.

In his judgment, he pointed out that criminal libel cases - which could result in prison sentences for those found guilty - jeopardise the principle of freedom of expression were they to be abused.

Vexatious criminal libel actions are clearly harmful to the judicial system and the process of justice, said the magistrate, describing the handling of this as a “clear abuse of criminal proceedings to hamper freedom of expression.”

The court, having heard submissions from both sides, declared Caruana to be not guilty.