Blog row ends with columnist acquitted

Columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been acquitted of harassing and vilifying Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera in a series of virulent blogs about her.

The saga, which saw the two women confront each other in court following a flood of articles by Ms Caruana Galizia, which called into question the behaviour of the magistrate, ended with a short and technical hearing that was over in minutes.

The articles contained allegations involving drugs and corruption. There were also claims of inappropriate liaisons with police officers.

But in the end it came down to a technical, legal discussion between the lawyers of the magistrate and the columnist and the prosecuting officer on how to end the case without the need for an appeal by the Attorney General’s office.

Ms Caruana Galizia, through her lawyer Roberto Montalto, did not insist that the case continues – as was her right to do – and the first two charges, that of defamation and criminal libel, were dropped.

Police Inspector Sandro Camilleri, who, as prosecuting officer, could also have demanded the case continued, agreed to ending it.

Finally, it was agreed that Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, who was hearing the case, would not find Ms Caruana Galizia guilty of harassment and the other two charges collapsed following the agreement by both parties.

The magistrate’s decree declaring the proceedings were extinguished and the reasoning behind the acquittal was not available yesterday.

Dr Montalto argued that the case fell through because a journalist writing about a public figure could not constitute harassment.

This latest development followed an application, filed by the Magistrate Scerri Herrera on Wednesday, asking for the case to be dropped, claiming that the columnist had withdrawn allegations against her when she testified on September 6.

In her application, the magistrate said she had filed her complaint to the police mainly about specific allegations involving drugs and corruption.

She quoted paragraphs from Ms Caruana Galizia’s blog and contrasted them to what the columnist had testified in court where she declared that she knew the magistrate did not take drugs and was not involved in corruption.

However, Ms Caruana Galizia denied having made any retraction on the witness stand, pointing out that she had merely explained her writings.

If anything, the columnist pointed out, she had amplified some claims she had made about the magistrate’s inappropriate liaisons with police officers.

Dr Montalto had submitted a list of witnesses he planned to summon.

The witnesses were: Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat, Chief Justice Emeritus Vincent De Gaetano, Nationalist MP Jeffery Pullicino Orlando, Police Superintendent Michael Cassar, lawyer Veronique Dalli, Labour Party journalist Charlon Gouder, the head of human resources at the daily l-orrizont, Ronnie Pelligrini, Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s partner, Robert Musumeci and the Court Registrar.