The corridors of power were briefly transferred to a small court room yesterday as some of Malta’s most prominent politicians, editors and other high-ranking personalities were packed in together, waiting for various libel cases to be heard.

They rubbed shoulders and shared a joke or two in the minutes before Magistrate Francesco Depasquale emerged from the chambers. The rare occurrence saw former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, the Ombudsman and former Chief Justice Joseph Said Pullicino, former Police Commissioner John Rizzo and Malta’s former permanent representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana in the same room.

They were joined by former Transport Minister Austin Gatt, former Tourism Minister Mario de Marco, former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and former Foreign Minister Francis Zammit Dimech.

Also in the court room were Home Affairs Minister Emmanuel Mallia, Economy Minister Chris Cardona, Law Commissioner Franco Debono and Secretary General of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU, Vince Farrugia.

At the same time, chief editor of Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta Steve Mallia, former editor of the Times Ray Bugeja, editor of timesofmalta.com Chris Scicluna, editor of Maltatoday Saviour Balzan and the former head of news at the national station Natalino Fenech all waited patiently for their own cases to begin.

George Farrugia, the man at the centre of the oil procurement scandal, and the leader of the Alleanza Liberali party John Zammit also made an appearance.

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