The Court of Appeal this morning confirmed the judgement in the libel cased filed by Richard Cachia Caruana against former Labour Minister Joseph Grima, ordering the latter to pay €5,000 damages and court expenses.

Malta former representative in the EU, Mr Cachia Caruana filed a libel case following a string of comments made on Facebook by Mr Grima - now Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s Tourism Envoy - back in August 2012.

In his comments, Mr Grima alleged that because of Mr Cachia Caruana’s status, he benefitted from political favours. He also implied that Mr Cachia Caruana profited from the Maltese population by obtaining a permit to build a pool in his Villa, allowing him to sell the property for €5 million.

Mr Grima lost the case on in March 2014, when the court ordered him to pay Mr Cachia Caruana €5,000 in damages as well as all legal costs.

The appeal case was presided over by Mr Justice Anthony Ellul. He noted that the appellant defended himself by saying that his comments were true, and that Mr Grima said the facts “will be proved during court proceedings,” but he ultimately failed to provide such evidence.

Mr Justice Ellul found that since the comments gave the impression that there was abuse of power and that the appellant failed to provide evidence, this leads the court to believe that the comments were made in order to tarnish the reputation of Mr Cachia Caruana.

For the above reasons the Mr Justice Ellul rejected the appeal and upheld the ruling of the original judgement given by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale.