The Nationalist Party said this afternoon it was categorically rejecting accusations by the European Greens in the Harry Vassallo case.

The Greens had expressed support for Alternattiva Demokratika leader Harry Vassallo after he was served with arrest warants over a court case yesterday.

EGP co-spokesmen Ulrike Lunacek and Philippe Lamberts said: “The ruling Nationalist Party have shamefully attempted to damage AD on the penultimate day of campaigning by making public, through a media outlet loyal to them, details of an ongoing legal case involving Harry Vassallo, details which were up to that point unknown to Harry Vassallo himself.

"We have every confidence that Harry Vassallo will be shown to have done nothing improper and that a bureaucratic error is being manipulated to serve the political interests of the Nationalist Party. The fact that the Nationalist Party are prepared to stoop to such unethical and morally repugnant measures at the very end of an election campaign shows that they are very frightened of the electoral inroads being made by Alternattiva Demokratika and the challenge that AD poses to the political status quo in Malta.”

The PN in its reaction said the accusations by the Greens were false and unfair.

It insisted it did not and could not influence the judicial process that led to the conversion of Dr Harry Vassallo’s unpaid fines into a prison term.

On the contrary, the PN, as well as Prime Lawrence Gonzi, had already denounced the ill-timing of the police in the case.

"The PN also calls on the European Greens to stop applying double standards. Would the European Greens have reacted in the same manner if another party leader had been convicted to a prison term for having failed to pay fines imposed by court?," the PN asked.