A lawyer representing Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera this morning requested a court to put off the Daphne Caruana Galizia defamation case for judgement after claiming that the columnist, her husband and her lawyer, were making a 'mockery of the court'.
Ms Carauna Galizia did not turn up in court when the case was due to continue today.
She stands charged with defaming the magistrate in a series of blog posts claiming the magistrate had acted improperly in her private life. The posts, which began in January last year, set tongues wagging after making a number of serious allegations such as the magistrate having been in the company of drug users at parties.
Ms Caruana Galzia's lawyer, Roberto Montalto, this morning informed Magistrate Anonio Micallef Trigona that she had not been notified, and the police had ample time to do so. He said he could not understand why his client could not be notified in the normal manner, given that she had other cases in court and there were no problems about them.
Ms Caruana Galizia's husband, Peter, told the court that a policeman had turned up at their residence on Sunday to notify them, but he refused to accept the notification note, because it was a Sunday, which was not the proper day for this sort of thing. He said that in order to alert them that they were there, the police had even switched on their sirens, something that was ridiculous.
Police Inspector Sandro Camilleri said that the police had called at Mrs Caruana Galizia's residence on July 2, 4, 7, last Sunday and on Monday and every time the officers were not able to deliver the summons. On Monday, an officer rang the doorbell and spotted Ms Caruana Galizia peering from a window, but she did not open the door.
At this point, Dr Steve Tonna Lowell, representing Magistrate Scerri Herrera, said that he believed that the accused had been notified because Ms Caruana Galizia knew what was happening. By law, he said, the notification notice should have been left at the residence.
This, he said was not a circus and the Caruana Galizias were making a mockery of the court. This was unacceptable, especially when the police had done their utmost to notify the accused.
"We are not after a pound of flesh, we do not want her brought to court under arrest" he said.
Referring to a comment made previously by defence counsel, Dr Tonna Lowell said that this case was being heard summarily and the rule was that such cases were heard entirely in one day and judgement was pronounced shortly afterwards. In this case, however, it had taken a year for Ms Carauna Galizia to testify, and there was a limit to what the court could tolerate. He, therefore, requested the court to put off the case for judgement.
Dr Montalto replied that he was not a comedian. The fact of the matter was that his client had not been notified.
The court ruled that once it had been shown that the accused had not been notified, the case was being put off to September. He told the lawyers that this would be the last time for Ms Caruana Galizia to testify.