A lawyer said in court today that he was "disturbed" by charges brought against a man who wrote to the President accusing a magistrate, an official from the Attorney General’s office and a police inspector, of corruption.

Christian  Demanuele, a company director from St Paul's Bay, pleaded not guilty of  making the claims in a letter he sent to President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca in March. He is being charged with accusing people of committing a crime he knew had not taken place, making false claims about them, as well as vilifying and insulting them.

But the man’s lawyer, Mark Busuttil, said he felt "disturbed" by the vilification charge.

During the cross examination by Dr Busuttil, Police inspector Saviour Baldacchino, who is leading the prosecution, was asked several times whether it was a crime to pen a letter about concerns.

Insp. Baldacchino insisted that while everyone had a right to write such a letter, the police investigated the contents of the letter, not the fact that Mr Demanuele had written it.

He said that in the letter, Mr Demanuele had engaged in mudslinging, while the way the letter was written threw a bad light on all of the  justice system - the police, magistrates and the AG. 

The issue at stake was the fact that Mr Demanuele had made serious allegations against a number of people in high authority but it later transpired that the allegations were false.

It emerged in court that the Magistrate mentioned in the letter was Consuelo Scerri Herrera. One of the allegations made by Mr Demanuele was that the magistrate's caseload had been decreased as “she was not good".

The inspector said the accused may have felt hurt after being denied bail in a separate case. He had started to suspect that there was some plot against him. This was why he wrote the letter.

Mr Demanuele was arraigned in the original case after being brought to Malta under a European Arrest Warrant, with the the police accusing him of fleeing.

However, Mr Demanuele said he he did not have any pending criminal cases when he left the island, and that the arrest warrant was issued a year after he left Malta.

Mr Demanuele is on bail and the case is set to continue on November 2.

Magistrate Doreen Clarke is presiding over the case.