A court of magistrates today threw out a libel case filed by Imperium Europa leader Norman Lowell against MaltaToday over three articles which implied that Lowell or his followers had been behind a spate of arson attacks on pro-immigration journalists and charities.

MaltaToday had also implied that the attack on columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s house on 12 May 2006 was carried out by Lowell’s followers after a BBQ had been held close to her house on that same night.

The three articles – published on 14 May, 2006 - were titled ‘Arsonists attack Daphne on same night Norman Lowell organises BBQ’ which was penned by journalist Kurt Sansone, ‘Lowell’s neo-nazis hit out at press after arson attack’ written by journalist Matthew Vella, and ‘Get the Bastards now, before it is too late’, penned by managing editor Saviour Balzan.

Other arson attacks had been carried out on the properties of Fr Pierre Grech Marguerat and Dr Kathrine Camilleri of the JRS. MaltaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan was also the victim of an arson attack.

Mr Lowell had never condemned the attacks and indeed, just a few hours after Mrs Caruana Galizia’s house was hit, had posted an entry on a far-right blog which read “yes, indeed, I have drunk to the dregs and toasted the heroes in my own incorrigible ways.”

The court noted that the fact that Mr Lowell had never contested the assertion that he embraced anti-immigrant views and quoted various comments which he had posted online. “The complainant, as a leader of an organisation known as Imperium Ewropa, has harsh and hard-line views on the immigration issue and whoever is involved in the defence of immigrant rights and therefore, by right, these views certainly evoke a similarly harsh reaction against him and his organisation,” the court said.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale held that the articles were not libellous, but factual, in view of Lowell’s extremist comments.

The magistrate also noted that Mr Lowell’s behaviour and comments he had made on the media were “not in any way acceptable in a democratic society, where diversity and multiculturalism form the foundations of Maltese society, as shown by the very language we speak”.