Pullicino Orlando ordered to pay libel damages

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando ordered to compensate Peter Caruana Galizia and Andrew Borg Cardona for defamation

Former MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has been ordered to pay €1,000 in damages for a defamatory Facebook post.

In a decision published this morning, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale ordered the firebrand former MP to pay lawyers Andrew Borg Cardona and Peter Caruana Galizia for a post of his which read: "Columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia's husband, Peter Caruana Galizia and consultant and columnist Andrew Borg Cardona, receive a contract of €542,280 for the services of their company, from the General Contracts Department, just two weeks before the general election."

Borg Cardona and Caruana Galizia had denied the allegation, which was eventually deleted.

The court noted that while the contract was actually awarded to Evolve Limited, in which the two lawyers' firm BCGL Services Ltd, was a minority shareholder, the firm was holding the shares as a fiduciary services company - a trustee for someone else.

The court further observed that Caruana Galizia had been a company secretary of Evolve Ltd, but had no involvement in the day to day running of the company or its decision-making.

In view of this, the court held that it had been proved that the two lawyers were not the ones who had been awarded the government contract and the claim therefore constituted libel.

It however rejected Pullicino Orlando's attempt to justify the statement as a political comment. The lawyers were not politicians, observed the court, and the right for freedom of expression was not a licence to sully reputations.