[WATCH] Busuttil to wait for appeal on libel case of MP who used public workers for PN club

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil says Toni Bezzina does not need to suspend himself

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said he will await the outcome of an appeal to be lodged by MP Toni Bezzina, who has lost two defamation cases when it was alleged he used government workers under his supervision to carry out private works at a PN party club.

“Bezzina doesn’t need to suspend himself. It is apparent that the workers who testified in the Bezzina defamation case changed their original declarations by signing them at the Labour Party headquarters,” Busuttil said.

“It should be Chris Cardona who answers to this,” Busuttil said of the Labour deputy leader for party affairs, whom he dubbed ‘the axe minister’ because of the economy minister’s controversial comments on using ‘an axe for every dagger’ thrown at the Labour Party.

The Labour Party wants action to be taken against Bezzina after a court ruled that a 2012 newspaper report that Bezzina had ordered three government workers to carry out work at the PN club in Zurrieq using government-owned materials, was true.

The workers were then made to sign an affidavit saying the works were carried out voluntarily in their own personal time. One of the workers later submitted another affidavit denying what was said in the original one. All three workers told the court that they had been coerced in signing the original affidavit.

“The Opposition leader, who presents himself at the paladin of good governance had a chance to take action. The court sentence confirming what the media had said is a test for the Opposition leader,” Cardona said.

Bezzina had filed libel proceedings against il-Kulhadd and l-Orizzont, denying that the works on the PN club had been carried out during their working hours. The court however established that this had indeed taken place.

The Nationalist Party has highlighted the fact that one of the workers in question signed a second affidavit at the Labour Party's headquarters, and challenged Cardona to explain who had written the declaration, who had summoned workers to the PL headquarters, and why. 

In a reaction, the Labour Party accused Busuttil of failing yet another test in a case where action should have been taken against his MP.

“For Simon Busuttil, the facts which emerged from court do not mean anything and what went on was acceptable,” the PL said, as it claimed that no one was “taking Busuttil seriously”.

It went on to insist that Busuttil’s double standards applied for his own people, “just imagine how he would act with the public”.

On the other hand, the PN used the case of its former Victoria mayor to say that it was setting an example in how good governance takes place.

Samuel Azzopardi got a six-month ban for drink-driving. Pending the outcome of the decision, Azzopardi resigned as mayor and suspended himself from the PN.

The PN has now lifted Azzopardi’s suspension and will nominate him for mayor again.