Columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia is due to take the witness stand next month to give what is expected to be lengthy testimony in the defamation case instituted against her by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera.

Ms Caruana Galizia 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, set tongues wagging after making a num-ber of serious allegations such as the magistrate having been in the company of drug users at parties.

In two previous sittings, Magistrate Scerri Herrera categorically denied ever having been in the presence of drug users at any of her parties, which she threw for philanthropic causes.

At a sitting yesterday, defence lawyer Roberto Montalto and the lawyer representing the magistrate, Steve Tonna Lowell, were asked by Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona to accompany him to his chambers where they discussed the case.

Dr Montalto requested that his client be given two sittings in which to testify due to the length of her evidence.

Dr Tonna Lowell objected invoking the law governing witnesses. He argued that once Ms Caruana Galizia, as the accused, left the witness stand, nobody could force her to testify again and if the witness decided not to do so in the second sitting then he would have lost his chance to cross-examine her.

Magistrate Micallef Trigona put off the case and set a date in November for Ms Caruana Galizia’s testimony to be heard in its entirety. Cross-examination will be carried out immediately afterwards, as laid down in the law.