A Labour MP has lost a libel case against a weekly newspaper over two articles related to the claim of vote rigging at the election of a new Labour leader in 1992.

Anglu Farrugia had filed his suit in the Civil Court against Malta Today editor Saviour Balzan.

Farrugia claimed libel over an article written by Balzan and published on August 25, 2000 under the heading "Vote rigging report not concluded".

The article claimed that "Dr Anglu Farrugia, who is counsel for Mr [Paul] Muscat and was under attack by an MLP insider for having rushed to Mr Muscat's assistance, has neither confirmed nor denied the leak."

Farrugia also felt libelled by another article published in the same issue under the heading "Deflecting Attention - Malta's Baron Munchausen".

The second article stated that "He must have some delirious visions of Alfred Sant's head on a plate," and also "It does not stop there, the Labour inner core folk make it known that they too are not very happy with Dr Farrugia's loquacious habits".

Farrugia claimed the articles referred to a case that was being investigated by the MLP's board of vigilance. He was a member of the MLP and the unfounded allegations made by Balzan were aimed at exposing him to public ridicule and contempt.

He called on the court to condemn Balzan to pay him libel damages.

But Balzan pleaded fair comment on the second article and said he had based his conclusions on comments passed by journalists in the Malta Today newsroom coupled with personal experience and first-hand information from the MLP general secretary, Jimmy Magro.

With reference to the first article, Balzan said the newspaper had not wanted to imply that Farrugia was leaking stories to The Times but rather that there were people within the Labour Party who were leaking stories against Farrugia to the English-language newspapers.

The court upheld Balzan's pleas and dismissed the suit with costs.