A magistrate awarded lawyer Joseph Mifsud €2,000 after ruling that he had been libelled by an article published in Il-Mument in March last year.

Dr Mifsud sued the article's author, Joe Demartino, a councillor for the Nationalist Party in Mosta.

According to Dr Mifsud, the article was libellous because it alleged he had been appointed legal counsel to the Mosta local council in a suspicious manner after a meeting at the Labour Party club and not after a public call for tenders.

Dr Mifsud denied this and said that in December 2007 the local council had issued a call for tenders through the Government Gazette. Dr Mifsud submitted a tender and this was accepted by the council on January 23, 2008.

A council representative confirmed in court that Dr Mifsud's tender had been the most advantageous.

Mr Demartino, as a member of the local council, had full access to the documentation process of the tender but had not raised any objection to the appointment of Dr Mifsud except in the newspaper article.

Mr Demartino told the court that when he asked Mosta mayor Paul Chetcuti Caruana how Dr Mifsud had been appointed he was told that the decision had been taken at the PL club.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that it was probably the case that Mr Demartino had correctly quoted Dr Chetcuti Caruana but that the words had been quoted out of context.

Mr Demartino had tried to give the impression that Dr Mifsud had attempted to use political pressure to be appointed the council's lawyer.

Mr Demartino was ordered to pay Dr Mifsud €2,000 libel damages.

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