Vince Farrugia, the GRTU director general, has asked a court to ban publication of SMS messages he sent before and after he was allegedly assaulted by Sandro Chetcuti.

A victim of a cowardly attack

The request was made by Mr Farrugia’s lawyers in the police case against Mr Chetcuti, a former member of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU), who is charged with Mr Farrugia’s attempted murder at the association’s Valletta offices in 2010.

Lawyers Kris Busietta and Stephen Tonna Lowell said the details of what was found on Mr Farrugia’s SIM card, contained in a report drawn up by a court expert, were being “used and abused” by sections of the media. The lawyers had made a similar request in a previous sitting when Mr Chetcuti’s lawyers were using the contents of the SIM card as evidence in cross-examination.

The court had turned down that request. This time the lawyers argued that the contents of the report were being used by the media “for their partisan reasons” and that this was having a harmful effect on their client’s reputation.

“Let us not forget that Mr Farrugia was a victim of a cowardly attack committed by the accused,” they said, asking for a ban on the publication of the report’s contents.

In a previous court sitting, specialist Anthony Samuel, who gave a disputed medical opinion on the injuries suffered by Mr Farrugia, admitted he had dated Mr Farrugia’s daughter for a while. This emerged during his cross examination by Mr Chetcuti’s lawyers who were armed with records of mobile phone calls and SMSs sent to Dr Samuel.

In one SMS, Mr Farrugia’s daughter, Marie Claire, told her father: “Hi pa, I just asked Anthony Samuel to do a special scan on your ribs to check if there’s a fracture (no difference in terms of treatment, but helps court case). He will contact you through jan karl” (her brother).