Daphne Caruana Galizia acquitted in libel cases filed by former PL candidate

A court yesterday acquitted Daphne Caruana Galizia in three libel cases filed against her by former PL candidate Edgar Bonnici Cachia.

The defamatory libel case involved posts on her blog site daphnecaruanagalizia.com entitled ‘The Labour Party – a hit man for a candidate’ , ‘Can we please bear in mind that Bonnici Cachia himself has a seriously bad criminal record’ dating back to November 2014, and ‘The Labour Party – a hit man for a candidate’ in August 2011.

The posts alleged that Bonnici Cachia had formed part of a conspiracy to assassinate former Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Bakkush on 16 November 1984.

The conspiracy plot, which was discovered whilst Bakkush was in Egypt by Egyptian secret services, landed Mr Bonnici Cachia in prison for six months.

In his judgment, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale noted that Bonnici Cachia had also been previously convicted over fraud and failure to pay arrears with Telemalta Corporation and Vodafone Malta Ltd.

He had also sent personal correspondence during his time behind bars implying his involvement in the assassination attempt. There was also files belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which also indicated his involvement.

This, the court said, showed that there had been evidence suggesting that the content of the articles in question could be verified, and that Mrs Caruana Galizia had made sure that her articles contained the correct information.