Keith Schembri's no-show on Thursday in connection with libel proceedings he had instituted against Simon Busuttil earned him the rebuke of the former Nationalist Party leader. 

According to Dr Busuttil, the chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister was due in court to answer questions on the Panama Papers and 17 Black. 

"This is his libel case against me. Daphne (Caruana Galizia) had written about it in her last blog. He's been running away from his own case since that day," Dr Busuttil said in a tweet.

Read: Simon Busuttil, Keith Schembri, cross swords in court and on Twitter

Mr Schembri had filed the case against Dr Busuttil over a speech given during an anti-corruption protest in March 2016.

Mr Schembri's lawyer informed the magistrate that he had filed a note to inform all parties alerting them of his absence.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale adjourned the case to January. 

Uploaded minutes before she was murdered, Daphne Caruana Galizia had infamously posted a blog post with the headline: "That crook Schembri was in court today, pleading that he is not a crook."

During the October 2017 court case, Mr Schembri had accused Dr Busuttil of failing to provide any proof of the corruption allegations he had levelled out at him.