Nationalist Party general secretary Paul Borg Olivier had no apology to make to Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia and said he would not be intimidated by his “schoolyard bullying”.
He was reacting to comments published in The Times yesterday in which Dr Mallia said he would not insist on Dr Borg Olivier’s imprisonment if the general secretary were found guilty of libel over allegations linking Dr Mallia to the Enemalta oil scandal.
However, the minister said he expected Dr Borg Olivier to apologise.
Dr Borg Olivier described as a “gimmick” Dr Mallia’s request for his imprisonment.
A spokesman for the Nationalist Party quoted Dr Borg Olivier as saying that Dr Mallia wanted to be “both judge and jury” in his own complaint, filed after the oil story mentioning Dr Mallia appeared on PN news portal maltarightnow.com during the election campaign.
The spokesman said Dr Borg Olivier had “no apology to make”.
“He will not be intimidated by Dr Mallia’s schoolyard bullying approach of first threatening to imprison him and subsequently retracting his threat in what looks like a fake act of mercy.”
In filing the complaint, he said, Dr Mallia had “engaged in an electoral gimmick seeking the sympathy of the electorate”. He said it was wrong, both in fact and at law, to seek Dr Borg Olivier’s imprisonment. Changes to the Criminal Code and the Press Act were made by a Nationalist government in 2006 and reference to imprisonment for defamatory libel under Article 11 of the Press Act was repealed.
“Minister Mallia also failed to scroll down the Criminal Code when reading the chapter related to defamation and failed to read Article 256 when referring to any printed matter,” the spokesman said in his reply to questions sent by The Times.
“As much as Dr Borg Olivier would have to give evidence on oath to defend himself against the complaint, Minister Mallia will also have to take the witness stand and be subject to a cross-examination for his involvement in the case,” the spokesman said, adding that the first hearing is scheduled for Monday.