The Court of Appeal, presided over by Mr Justice Philip Sciberras, last week confirmed that President George Abela had been libelled by a press release issued by the General Workers Union PRO Charles Vella in August 2006. While confirming a judgement handed down last April by the Civil Court, the Appeals Court reduced the damages awarded from e2000 to e1,400.

Dr Abela was representing Josephine Attard Sultana who was contending she had been unjustly sacked by the union.

According to the testimony by Ray Abdilla, court reporter for Medialink (the PN media), when the court sentence in favour of Ms Attard Sultana was pronounced, he had called Dr Abela, who till then knew nothing of the sentence and asked him whether he was happy with the news. Dr Abela told him he was very happy but refused to answer some other questions. Mr Abdilla was told by his newsroom to add what Dr Abela had told him to his story and file it again.

But when the news item was published on the maltarightnow website, Dr Abela had called him and told him the report had included things he (Dr Abela) had not told him. When he checked, Mr Abdilla found that his report had been tampered with, so he called the office and asked them to print a correction, which they did.

Dr Abela testified he had contacted l-orizzont editor Frans Ghirxi about the statement issued by the GWU PRO, and Mr Ghirxi had included Dr Abela’s correction, but he had also carried the GWU’s press statement. This led to a parallel libel case by Dr Abela against l-orizzont.

The GWU’s PRO statement said GWU was not surprised that the PN had backed Dr Abela, when one considers the long-standing affinity between Dr Abela and the PN. “One must also remember,” the statement added, “that when Dr Abela ceased acting as GWU’s legal consultant, the government had appointed him as a consultant to various public bodies.”

Dr Abela felt aggrieved by the Orizzont statement that he had launched a ‘disloyal attack’ on GWU, that he had abandoned his work with GWU, that he had refused to reply to a legal letter sent by the government, nor that he had helped to end some people’s employment with GWU.

Dr Abela had also written to Charles Vella, the GWU’s PRO regarding the press statement Mr Vella had published and told him he had already written to Medialink to deny what had been initially alleged about his words after the Attard Sultana judgement.

Mr Vella, in turn, testified that the statement had not been written by him but was given to him for distribution to the media and he had just glanced at it. He also admitted he had received a fax and a letter from Dr Abela together with a copy of a letter sent by Dr Abela to Medialink but he had not done anything about it because he doubted whether what Dr Abela had said was true or not.

Mr Vella asked the First Court to allow the Mepa chairman to testify on the selection process of a legal adviser, how Abela Stafrace & Associates and/or Dr Abela were chosen and what payments were given, and for the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister to list the consultancies given to Dr Abela or his legal office from 2000 to date and payments given. However, Dr Abela had opposed and insisted that the testimonies must not be asked to state details about the legal office. The First Court had ruled that unless a link was proved between Dr Abela and the legal office, such testimony couldn’t form part of this court case. On 8 January, Mr Vella had asked for permission to present a note but such note was never presented.

The First Court had thus found against Mr Vella and ordered him to pay e2,000 in damages.

Mr Vella appealed. His first claim was that the judgement was dated 22 April and not 2 April. The Appeals Court found that effectively the sentence had been set for 22 April but Dr Abela had asked for it to be put forward to 2 April, when the judgement was in fact delivered. The Appeals Court admitted that the actual date of the judgement is important, as there is a strict timeframe for an appeal to be made and also because damages begin from this date, but nowhere in the judgement is there a reference to the fact that Dr George Abela was chosen as President of the Republic on 4 April. Anyway, Mr Vella had appealed in good time, even from the 2 April date.

Having confirmed the judgement of the First Court, the Appeals Court reduced the damages to e1,400, the same amount another court found for damages in the case Dr Abela v. Frans Ghirxi.