The husband and sons of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have rebutted claims by lawyer Pawlu Lia and insisted that they do not do not “on any condition” wish the libel cases instituted by Minister Chris Cardona and his aide Joe Gerada to be withdrawn.

It also challenged the pair to publish their mobile phone location data.

Cardona and Gerada had sued the late journalist for libel over claims that they had gone to a brothel in Velbert, Germany, while on official government business.  They had denied also requested precautionary warrants worth the maximum possible damages awarded at law, €11,750, blocking the journalist’s bank accounts. A crowd-funding initiative, however, soon gathered nearly twice the €47,460 frozen by the garnishees and within a few days, had raised almost €70,000.

On Monday morning Peter Caruana Galizia, told Magistrate Francesco Depasquale that Gerada had offered to cede the case as long as the parties agreed that Gerada would not suffer the costs of the lawsuit.

Later, lawyer Pawlu Lia, who is representing Gerada and Chris Cardona, said what Peter Caruana Galizia told the court was untrue. He claimed that the talks to reach a settlement on this case were initiated by Caruana Galizia.

"One day we came face to face in the corridor at court and he asked me if I was going to carry on with the cases. I replied what do you want me to do with them? This is all something he started himself," the lawyer insisted.

Lia said that Caruana Galizia asked him to cede the cases. "I then asked what would happen with the costs and was told that all parties would bear their own costs," Lia said, adding that he later went to his clients with the proposal.

The lawyer said his clients turned down the request since they wanted to prove the allegations wrong. However, it appears that Gerada had lost interest in the case.

"I told Peter that everyone wants to prove their innocence, but Gerada no longer has an interest - it's different from a proposal. This is the truth. I then asked Peter whether he could also speak for the children and he said he could," Lia said.

The lawyer explained that in the interim he was having talks with Joe Zammit Maempel, the Caruana Galizia lawyer, on what sort of declaration could be made. "Evidently the children did not agree and I am not going to accept that Peter gives a declaration and the children say they don’t agree," Lia said.

In a statement issued later on Monday, the family said it did not want the cases to be dropped.

The family said that the facts are as follows:

“Today’s hearing in the cases filed by Cardona and Gerada, scheduled for 10:00am, was called at 9:25am when the respondents had not yet arrived in the courtroom. In their absence, the applicants’ and the respondents’ lawyers agreed to adjourn the cases.

The applicants’ lawyer Paul Lia is quoted in the media as saying that “everyone wants to prove their innocence, but Gerada no longer has an interest.” If the applicants Cardona and Gerada are innocent, as they claim, they can prove this immediately by publishing their mobile phone location data showing their precise location on the day and at the time they say they were not at the FKK Acapulco brothel in Velbert. This is in line with the family’s position, based on the clear and overwhelming public interest, that the cases should proceed and that the mobile phone location file data currently held in the magistrate’s court files should be presented as evidence in open court.

Cardona and Gerada have so far not cleared their names and have avoided the simple expedient of publishing their mobile phone location data to corroborate their version of events.

It is important to underline that Cardona and Gerada are public officials and it is their duty to behave ethically and correctly at all times. Furthermore, on filing the application for the issuance of precautionary garnishee orders in February 2017 Cardona and Gerada made a false declaration under oath. Perjury is a criminal offence which, in the case of the applicants, would result in both being stripped of their warrants to practise law.

The onus is on them to prove that their behaviour was ethical and correct at the time of their official visit to Germany as representatives of the EU Council Presidency, when filing their cases against Daphne Caruana Galizia, and in the manner and motives with which they handle their cases now.”