The heirs of Daphne Caruana Galizia have been ordered to pay €750 in damages to the head of the 2015 CHOGM over a blog post that was deemed to be defamatory.

The libel case was filed in 2017 by Phyllis Muscat against Caruana Galizia, but the heirs assumed responsibility for the case after her murder in October of that year.

Muscat had complained about a blog post, published on Caruana Galizia’s website, titled: “CHOGM 2015 Task Force led by PM’s friend Phyllis Muscat asked hotels for kickbacks on delegate bookings.’

The blog post was based on an email circulated by the MHRA to its members in which it said the task force would be requesting commissions on hotel bookings.

Muscat said the article gave the impression that she had taken kickbacks from bookings for the Commonwealth Heads of Government event.

Muscat said it was normal for private operators to request commissions or discounts on mass bookings and the government did the same in order to recoup part of the cost of the event. The payments and commissions were paid directly to government through a Central Bank of Malta account.

She denied having ever received any money or commissions, both directly or indirectly.

Peter Caruana Galizia said his late wife could not understand what was libellous about the article, since she had never written that Phyllis Muscat had personally asked for, or taken the commissions.

Muscat, he said, had misinterpreted the blog post. What Daphne had implied was that it was wrong and indecorous for the government to ask for commissions.

He also argued that the term ‘kickbacks’ has the same meaning as commissions.

A similar argument was made by Matthew Caruana Galizia, who had discussed the article with his mother.

The court, however, found the article to be defamatory. The ordinary reader, the court said, would have understood that the CHOGM head, who was described in the headline as a friend of then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, had personally received kickbacks.

The heirs were ordered to pay Muscat €750 in damages.