A case has to be heard for the second time round after the magistrate handed out judgment before the concerned party had even arrived in court.

The case was filed in court by the police against Malta Today’s editor Saviour Balzan and columnist Mark Anthony Vella, after a request by Catherine Sammut, the widow of the author Frans Sammut.

Mrs Sammut felt that her husband’s name was being slandered by the article ‘The Last Samurai’, written by Mr Vella – which was published on 8 May 2011.

On 29 October 2012, the court cleared Mr Vella and Mr Balzan from the charges, because not enough evidence was provided, and because Mrs Sammut had failed to testify in court.

The Attorney General appealed, because the judgment was to be handed out at 10:30am however it was done before – precisely 9:20am.

Judge Antonio Mizzi ruled that the magistrate should have kept to the time agreed upon and therefore annulled the sentence and asked the court to hear the case again.