A high-ranking police officer had told blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia that he had seen Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi kissing his PA at the Tiffany Champagne and Cigar room at Portomaso, a court heard today.

Mrs Caruana Galizia was testifying before Magistrate Francesco Depasquale as the defendant in a libel suit filed by former Super One journalist Lindsay Gambin, the PA in question, in relation to a blog posted by DCG in November last year.

Lawyer Andrew Sciberras, appearing for Ms Gambin, asked the defendant whether she had verified that Ms Gambin had been involved in an extramarital relationship.

“These situations are very hard to verify,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said. The blogger also mentioned the case of Labour MP Luciano Busuttil, who she claims, created a fake Facebook account which he would use to woo females, only to delete the account moments after Dr Busuttil was confronted by herself about the fake Facebook account.

“My source is a high-ranking police officer who has since taken early retirement,” she said.

“I had no reason to doubt him. He told me he had seen them in the bar, drinking champagne and smoking cigars. It was at night, they were sitting right next to each other and their body language was not that of a minister and a PA. They were also kissing.

“An AFM officer recently called me at midnight, saying that Dr Mizzi was at a Valletta bar ‘with a woman,’” she continued. Suspecting it to be Ms Gambin, Mrs Caruana Galizia told the court that she had sent her source a picture of the PA, asking if the woman drinking with the minister was in fact the same woman in the photo, to which her sources replied in the affirmative.

“If a married man is out drinking with a woman while his wife is abroad, they should be aware that they are not invisible,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said.

Dr Sciberras asked the defendant on the fact that this was, effectively, only a rumour, questioning whether publishing articles based on rumours are defamatory.

“This was a matter of public interest,” Mrs Caruana Galizia argued. “We are talking about a minister, who is also very close to the Prime Minister and who since March 2013 has not stopped making mistakes.”

She added that some months ago, Dr Mizzi had attended a wedding of a Super One employee and he was accompanied by Ms Gambin. “This is absolutely not professional behaviour,” she said.

The court was requested to allow the evidence exhibited in the case filed by Dr Mizzi against Mrs Caruana Galizia to be included into the acts of this case, the case of which is to continue in January.