MEP candidate Stefano Mallia filed a libel case against l-Orizzont after the newspaper published a report entitled: ‘Company in which Stefano Mallia was a director: €2.5 million in contracts over five years’.

Mr Mallia argued that the report was published to tarnish his reputation and as part of a mud-slinging campaign, aimed towards both the leader of the PN, Simon Busuttil and Mr Mallia.

He said that the tender mentioned in the article was won by an international company together with a company in which he was a director. The newspaper, however, attributed the whole tender amount of €1.9 million to just the company in which he was director, when in actual fact this company’s share of the contract was of €80,000 spread over four years.

l-Orizzont also implied that Mr Mallia was given some form of preferential treatment by the previous government, he said, arguing that this was not the case.