DB Group owner Silvio Debono and the Caruana Galizia family have reached an agreement which has seen the businessman drop 19 libel suits which he had filed against Daphne Caruana Galizia four years ago.

The lawsuits were filed in March 2017 in response to articles Caruana Galizia had written about the controversial land deal which had seen the ITS premises overlooking St. George’s Bay pass on to db Group.

Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb in October that year. The civil proceedings against her were taken up by her husband and three sons.

The land meanwhile is set to be turned into a mega-development which will rise over Pembroke.  The permits for the project had already been granted, but were later revoked after a court found a conflict of interest in one of the board members. A new planning process is ongoing.

Debono had testified in the public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s death, saying that he was not a “vengeful” man, but that he wanted to defend his rights and reach a compromise.

The agreement reached last March sees Debono agree to withdraw all cases and all claims against the journalist’s heirs. The Caruana Galizia family, on their part, agreed to withdraw all pleas filed against Debono.

That settlement agreement was duly signed and a copy of it filed in the records of the cases earlier this month.

Following that the court, presided over by magistrate Victor George Axiak, decreed each of the lawsuits as formally ceded.