Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco said today that he will sue Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino for criminal libel over a letter he sent yesterday to the President of Malta and copied to the press.
The issue is over allegations made against Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco on the sale of tickets for the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Dr Said Pullicino, a former Chief Justice, wrote to the President yesterday in his capacity as president of the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
In a statement issued through his lawyers, Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco said: "Reference is made to the various reports, letters, and blogs appearing recently in various parts of the media regarding the sale of Olympic Tickets. It is completely false to state that MOC officials were implicated by an international sporting authority in a case of corruption. Nowhere in the text of the IOC or during proceedings were such words used or implied.
"From the Web site of the IOC from the Ethics Commission report, one can read the relevant text about the President of the MOC which reads as follows:
“Mr Lino Farrugia, President of the Maltese NOC - After taking cognisance of all the evidence and his observations, the Commission observes that, by agreeing to take part, with the NOC Secretary General, in a discussion concerning the ATR contract for the Games in Sochi, when it was apparent that his interlocutors seemed to be looking for ways to circumvent the official mechanism, Mr Farrugia allowed the journalists to prove their point."
"As a matter of fact the IOC Board approved the recommendations “noting that none of the steps taken by the journalists (sale / purchase of tickets, negotiation of ATR contract for Sochi) led to any kind of transaction, and that the journalists were seeking merely to prove a point”.
"This makes it abundantly clear that any reference to corruption or black market tickets is a false statement. Indeed the European Olympic Committees issued two statements on the 8th December (scanned copy is being sent to the press) in this regard. One states: 'Due to the false press release, dated Friday 6th and 7th, by sections of the Maltese press, we hereby confirm that Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco was not at any point punished or suspended from the Olympic Movement.
'On the contrary Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco enjoys our full and unanimous support and we look forward to working with him in the future.'
"'Part of the second statement reads: '...calls for full respect for the rule of law to be applied and upheld. The members of the Executive Committee expressed their unanimous support for those implicated in the December 2012 Report of the IOC Ethics Commission.
"In particular they noted that the evidence on which the IOC Ethics Commission formulated its proposals was never made available in a timely manner to those implicated nor made available to the relevant National
Olympic Committees. Given the seriousness of the allegations where reputational damage to senior members of the Olympic Family is at stake, the
Committee expressed reservations about the lack of opportunity for those
concerned to appear before the full membership of the IOC Ethics Commission, reservations about the process of entrapment through which evidence was obtained and reservations about the absence of legal representation. The Board has asked the President of the EOC to make representations to the President of the International Olympic Committee and the President of ANOC to reflect the views of the EOC Executive Board and its membership.'
"Furthermore, the MOC President is nonetheless filing an action to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports – the World’s highest Tribunal on Sports) and in the Courts of Lausanne Switzerland complaining about the proceedings of the Ethics Commission.
"Here reference is made to what the EOC stated and the fact that [i] the documentation submitted by the London Sunday Times was not available to persons referred to by the Commission, that [ii] the video on the web site was “doctored”, [iii] that no cross examinations were allowed, [iv] the lack of opportunity to appear and submit before the full Commission as well as the IOC Board, and [v] the fact that the Secretary of the Board acted as prosecutor and Judge. When the MOC President was present there were no indications that his interlocutors seemed to be looking for ways to circumvent the official mechanism and he left the meeting half way through.
"In view of the above the MOC President has filed criminal libel proceedings against President Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino regarding the contents of his letter addressed to His Excellency the President of the Republic and handed to the media for circulation.
"Furthermore Mr. Justice Farrugia Sacco shall also be communicating with the
Commission of Administration of Justice, in order to provide the real sequence of events, and not the malicious interpretations given by certain journalists and politicians, which politicians should respect one of the most important pillars of a democracy being the separation of powers. Such pillar exists in order to have any member of the judiciary give his or her judgments, of whatever nature, in accordance with the oath taken, being that of acting without fear and hence not feel intimidated when giving such judgment."
Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco has been serving in the Judiciary for 32 years.