A magistrate yesterday criticised Vince Farrugia, the former director general of the Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU), over the “amateurish way” in which he and his lawyers managed a criminal libel case.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale repeated a comment he has made in several of his previous judgments, that criminal libel proceedings were being “abused” to limit freedom of expression.

Mr Farrugia had shown little interest in the case, not least because he only appeared for one of the 11 court sittings. He had even failed to explain which parts of the article he found defamatory and libellous, the court said.

Due to the lack of interest, the case “did not merit the court’s attention”. Mr Farrugia had filed the criminal libel suit against General Workers’ Union daily newspaper L-Orizzont over a 2012 article entitled Min hu l-ġurdien, Ċens? (Who is the rat, Vincent?).

The newspaper editor was acquitted.