An Appeals Court has confirmed a judgement handed down by the Magistrates’ Court which in March cleared Nationalist Party backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando of libelling former Marsascala mayor Charlot Mifsud after it declared that what Dr Pullicino Orlando said was “fair comment”.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Michael Mallia, ruled that Dr Pullicino Orlando was entitled to express his opinion when he said that the Marsascala local council had spent thousands of liri in reports on the effect of the re-development of the Sant’Antnin waste recycling plant. The magistrate said that although Dr Pullicino Orlando said “thousands of liri” when in fact the council had spent Lm236, this should be taken in the context of his right to express his opinion.

Mr Mifsud appealed the judgement claiming that the first court had not evaluated correctly the evidence produced and that it should have seen whether what the MP said was true or not and whether this amounted to libel.

But the Appeals Court, presided over by Mr Justice Philip Sciberras, quoted a judgement handed down by the European Court of Human Rights saying that “the distinction between statements of fact and value judgements is of less significance in a case such as the present where the impugned statement is made in the course of a lively political debate at a local level and where elected officials and journalists should enjoy a wide freedom to criticise the actions of a local authority even where the statements made may lack a clear basis in fact”.

Mr Justice Sciberras said any further comment would be superfluous and therefore confirmed the judgement.