Former GRTU Director Vince Farrugia has lost a libel case he instituted against General Workers Union newspaper l-Orizzont after a Magistrate ruled that an editorial published in the paper was based on real facts.

Mr Farrugia filed the libel suit against l-Orizzont editor Josef Caruana over a leader titled ‘The unravelling of a frame up” (L-isfaxxar ta’ ‘frame up) which was published on 25 April 2012.

The editorial spoke on a decision by the Attorney General to change an attempted murder charge against former GRTU Vice President Sandro Chetcuti into a serious injury charge. Mr Chetcuti had been found guilty of causing slight injury to Mr Farrugia after the widely publicized assault that took place at the GRTU’s Valletta offices in 2010. Mr Chetcuti recently presented a challenge to the Police Commissioner to charge Mr Farrugia with perjury.

The GWU paper’s editorial had spoken on the “mysterious circumstances” which led to Mr Chetcuti being charged with attempted murder. It said that the case “had all the ingredients of a clear frame up” and described Mr Chetcuti as being the real victim.

Vince Farrugia claimed that the article represented “the lowest form of journalism in Malta” and said its intention was to tarnish his reputation, both in Malta and abroad.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, however, ruled that the factsmentioned by the GWU editor were correct. The court had never described Mr Chetcuti as the real victim, like the newspaper did, but l-Orizzont argued that it was not just to charge a person with something that was much more serious than the real offense. The Magistrate also noted that, as a public person, Mr Farrugia is subject to a higher degree of criticism.

 

The court, therefore, denied Mr Farrugia’s request and threw out his libel claim.