Toni Bezzina insists libel against Prime Minister only lost on a 'technicality'

Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina has insisted that a libel case he lost to the Prime Minister yesterday, regarding claims that forced government workers back in 2012 to make false declarations, did not change the fact that board of inquiry had found him innocent.

The case goes back to comments made by Joseph Muscat during a public meeting in 2015 that Bezzina had forced government workers to sign a false declaration.

Muscat was referring to a case that happened in 2012, when Bezzina, who worked as an architect with the public works department was discovered to have used three workers under his wing to carry out maintenance work on the Żurrieq PN club. Bezzina was at the time, president of the PN sectional committee.

A court of magistrates had cleared the Prime Minister of making false and defamatory statements about the PN MP. Bezzina subsequently appealed the decision, which was rejected yesterday by the courts.  

READ MORE: Toni Bezzina loses appeal against the Prime Minister in libel proceedings

In a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Bezzina stressed that the “appeal had been decided on a technicality”, without the courts delving into or considering in detail, the merits of the case.

Despite this, he said the court had concluded that “as a matter of focat, the Prime Minister had made a false allegation which he did not substantiate”.

Bezzina point out that this was the third libel case related to this case, one of which was won by Bezzina.

A fact which had emerged over the course of the three cases, and, which to date, nobody from the Labour Party had explained, said Bezzina, was how half way through a departmental inquiry, workers were taken to the Labour Party headquarters under circumstances which were unclear and which led to them making the allegations for the first time.

“It is also worth mentioning how under a Nationalist government, immediate action was taken against everyone involved,” Bezzina said, insisting that this was not the case with the present government.  

Toni Bezzina continuing to chip away at Adrian Delia’s credibility

Meanwhile, the Labour Party said that while PN leader regularly spoke about good governance, he had not uttered a word on this case involving one of his MPs.

PL deputy leader Chris Cardona said that on the 25 May, the nation would go to the polls and would keep in mind the fact that the PN could not be trusted.

“The country cannot trust and put its faith in someone who pontificates about everyone but who then, in a case like this, hides and says nothing,” Cardona said. 

READ MORE: Toni Bezzina abused his position and coerced workers into signing false declaration, court says