Blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia this evening denied claims made in parliament by Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando that she told him - after the general election in 2008 - that Richard Cachia Caruana worked for his resignation from parliament.

"Had Pullicino Orlando not protected himself by means of parliamentary privilege when saying this, I would have been able to open civil and criminal suits against him for slander," Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

She added that Dr Pullicino Olando was 'in bad faith' when he said that he told the law courts, under oath, of this assertion.

"He failed to mention that I took the witness stand immediately after he did, to negate all that he had said, also under oath, adding that the level of stress which he was under at the time, and which I remembered well, would have affected both his judgement and his memory. I, who was not affected by the potential loss of income from a Mistra Bay development project, had and still have total recall of what I said and did not say to him."

In a statement, Mrs Caruana Galizia said it was true that there were people working for Pullicino Orlando's resignation, "but I had no reason to believe that Richard Cachia Caruana was one of them.

"If he were one of them, and had I been privy to that information, there is no way I would have imparted it to Pullicino Orlando, a politician I  had spoken to just a few times, in breach of trust to Cachia Caruana, who I have known since I was in my early 20s. Pullicino Orlando goes awry in judging others by his own despicable standards."

She added that Dr Pullicino Orlando also failed to mention that when she was on the witness stand, she took him to task, before a packed courtroom, for betraying her trust and the trust of all those other people who put him in parliament with their vote.

"The tragic irony is that he has used the constituency support I gave him to betray the political party for which I voted, and to launch a blackguard's tirade against me and others, while protected by parliamentary privilege.

"I can see now it was inevitable that Pullicino Orlando would strip himself of the last vestiges of decency and dignity and give vent to personal obsession and hatred in a manner totally unbecoming to somebody who claims, absolutely without justification, to be a gentleman.

"I wish to put on public record the very words I spoke under oath in court: that I will regret until my dying day my decision to vote for Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, a man I have come to think of as a blackguard, and to give him so much succour and support, to the detriment at times of my peace of mind, in the first year after the general election of 2008.

"I am a firm believer that correctness truly does prevail over indecency and spite, even if it takes a generation and the manner in which it happens may not be immediately apparent.

"I hope at least that there is to be some reward for Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando's consort in the Labour Party, for it would indeed be a shame to think that his extraordinarily ill-bred behaviour has been in vain.

"I find it astonishing that he chose to read out in parliament excerpts from an article I wrote in support of him in March 2008, but not the many pieces I have written since, in which I have made it amply clear that I will do penance for many years to come for having voted for somebody so very unworthy and so undeserving of my trust," Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

See Andrew Borg Cardona's blog - Power hungry? Never- at http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20