Adrian Delia files fourth libel case against Daphne Caruana Galizia

PN leadership candidate Adrian Delia has filed his fourth libel case against journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia over a number of articles appearing on her website on 28 August.

The articles “include a number of false, libellous and defamatory accusations,” the court application read.

The application cites four articles which Delia finds libellous, including one titled ‘It’s astonishing that the Nationalist Party has not asked Adrian Delia to withdraw from the race’, and another titled ‘Nationalist Party Leadership contender Adrian Delia is caught out in yet another lie’.

The articles, the application continued, are causing and will continue to cause irreparable damage, and are being made with a clear intention to damage the trust councillors and PN members have in Delia as a candidate for the PN leadership post.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, who has filed the request on behalf of his client, has asked that the case be heard in the shortest time possible.

The PN leadership candidate filed the first libel suit against the journalist on Thursday, 24 August, and a second one the following day. The first two libel cases will start to be heard on 25 September, after the PN leadership election is held. The first phase of the election is on 2 September, the second on 16 September. The third libel suit was filed on Monday.

Delia is being accused by Caruana Galizia of money laundering. She claims that money deriving from prostitution in London flats was transferred through an offshore account in Delia’s name.

Delia has vehemently denied the claims, saying that he does not have, and never had personal accounts or moneys abroad. He previously acknowledged that he represented a Maltese client who was indeed the landlord of at least one property used for illicit practices, but insisted that his client/landlord was not to be held responsible for the actions of his tenants.