A Magistrates’ Court has turned down a claim for damages by former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil in an action sparked off by a Labour Party political broadcast on television titled ‘One and half million in direct orders.’

The spot, aired in the run-up to the European Parliament Elections of 2014, had sought to disprove the claim made some time earlier by the then Opposition leader that in the preceding three years he had earned less than the minimum wage.

The broadcast had referred to €1.5 million in direct orders which had allegedly benefited a company of which Dr Busuttil was a shareholder.

Dr Busuttil had instituted a libel suit against the president and executive secretary of the Labour Party over the claim that: “Simon Busuttil’s company took €1.5 million in contracts and direct orders...amongst them consultancies about pig farms, wine bars and rabbit breeding.”

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale noted that Dr Busuttil, as a partner at Ganado Sammut Advocates which had incorporated a consultancy company on EU matters called Europa Research and Consultancy Services Ltd in 2003, held 16.7% of shares in the latter company.

On the basis of documentary evidence put forward, the court concluded that the comments aired in the political broadcast had been based on true facts.

A number of parliamentary questions tabled between 1998-2013 documenting payments issued by various ministries to the company, had totalled just over €1 million, while ERCS Ltd had won a tender, together with another three companies, for a biological treatment plant worth some €1.9 million.

The court also observed that the comments made in the TV spot in the heat of an electoral campaign could not fail to be taken as political criticism of a political person on an issue of public interest.

As a political figure, Dr Busuttil was subject to a higher degree of criticism, the court observed, adding further that the spot had made reference to the company where Dr Busuttil was involved rather than against him personally.

Moreover, the Labour Party had devised the TV spot to counter the earlier claim made by Dr Busuttil that in the preceding three years he had earned “less than the minimum wage”, checking out the facts and supporting their ensuing comments with documentary proof.

Deeming such comments acceptable in a democratic society, the court rejected Dr Busuttil's claim.

An earlier libel suit against local Sunday paper Kullħadd over the same subject matter, tackled in an article titled ‘A Boxing Day Gift for Busuttil's Company’, had been judged defamatory, landing the newspaper’s editor with the payment of €1,000 in libel damages in favour of Dr Busuttil.