The journalist who broke the story about former Greens party leader Harry Vassallo being charged for not paying VAT fines yesterday testified that his source for the story was definitely not the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

Ray Abdilla, who works for the Nationalist Party newspaper In-Nazzjon, was testifying in the libel case that the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Edgar Galea Curmi, filed against MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan.

The libel centres around an article in MaltaToday written after the Nazzjon story appeared. It was entitled “Throwback To Mintoffian Times” and alleged that Mr Galea Curmi had tried to leak a story to Mr Balzan about former Green party leader Harry Vassallo and his outstanding VAT payments.

It was claimed that Mr Galea Curmi had gone to Mr Balzan’s house to give him details of the story.

In the sitting yesterday, Mr Abdilla said his own story was published just two days before the last general election.

He was not going to reveal its source but he had come by the information in court which is where he worked practically every day.

He ruled out Mr Galea Curmi being the source of the information. He said he was not a friend of his but obviously knew who he was because he worked with the Nationalist media.

The case continues.