Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has been cleared of making false and defamatory statements about PN MP Anthony Bezzina when he had said during a speech at a Labour Party club that the parliamentarian had forced government workers to sign a false declaration.

Mr Bezzina had sued Dr Muscat in 2015, after the latter alleged during a speech at the Zurrieq Labour Party club that an inquiry had found that the PN MP had coerced employees of the Public Works Department into declaring that they had not been used to carry out works inside the Zurrieq PN club during working hours three years earlier.

At the time, Mr Bezzina was employed as an architect by the department and was president of the sectional committee of the PN in Zurrieq.

It emerged that the PN club in the locality needed painting ahead of the local council elections of 2012 and Mr Bezzina had asked the foreman of his department to find him some workers who would be prepared to do the necessary works after hours.

The works were carried out using materials he had provided and took three afternoons to complete.

The interior decorators had refused payment.

But after Maltese language paper Kulhadd ran a story claiming that the works had been carried out during work hours, Mr Bezzina was asked to provide an explanation. He had summoned the three workmen to his office to sign a declaration that they had completed the works after their working hours.

The workers’ foreman had asked them to sign a declaration stating that they had not been carrying out the works on government time, but one was reluctant to do so as it stated that they had gone there of their own free will, when in fact, they had been asked to go. He was eventually convinced to go.

Under cross-examination, one of the workmen denied taking an oath on the declaration, saying he had only signed it after being pushed into doing so. The other men gave similar versions of events.

After they signed the declaration, two of the workers had gone to make an affidavit in which they denied going voluntarily and that they had acted on the orders of their foreman. A board of inquiry had noted that the men were fearful of their superiors and had felt constrained to sign the declaration.

One of the men had gone to sign the declaration right after attending his mother’s funeral, noted the Board, which eventually recommended that clear working hours be laid out and assertiveness training be given to vulnerable workers.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, deciding the libel case, noted that the Prime Minister was duty bound to bring questionable behaviour of elected officials to light. Mr Bezzina was a person elected to represent the interests of the people and had abused his position to force workers to do private work for free as well as sign documents denying this.

Therefore there was nothing defamatory in the article, said the magistrate, dismissing the suit.

Mr Bezzina later said in a statement that he intended to appeal the decision.