PN MP Karol Aquilina was cleared of charges relating to alleged dangerous driving by a court on Wednesday after a magistrate found that accusations that Aquilina had tried to run over a policeman were untrue.
Aquilina said on Facebook that he had been cleared of any accusation that was being used to tarnish and break him by the courts.
The PN MP was charged last May with dangerous driving over an incident two years prior – an incident which was brought to light by Labour Party media.
The incident in question occurred in December 13 Road in Marsa in June 2019, when Aquilina allegedly refused to obey police instructions while driving.
Footage of the incident was brought to light by Labour television host Karl Stagno Navarra on his programme ‘Pjazza’, showing Aquilina's car driving in front of a vehicle which was to be used officially as it drove in the direction of Valletta, despite orders to the contrary from two police officers on motorbikes.
“In his sentence, the Magistrate said that ‘the charges [which police filed against him] were unsubstantiated’,” Aquilina said.
“In these last few months, I have allowed judicial process to take its course. Today that process was concluded and I am proud to say that the disgusting campaign full of lies which Karl Stagno Navarra and the Labour Party stations led has exploded in their faces,” he said.
Aqulina said that Stagno Navarra had lied about the incident when he said that he (Aquilina) tried to run over a police officer, drove through a red light and that he corrupted a police officer. Stagno Navarra had also lied when he had reported that Aquilina had abused of parliamentary privilege.
In a statement, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech said that Aquilina, who had resigned as PN spokesman for justuce and secretary of the parliamentary group when he was facing the charges, has been reappointed to the same positions.
The PN said an investigation should be conducted on how internal footage owned by the police was passed on to One TV journalist Karl Stagno Navarra and was manipulated to carry out a character assassination campaign against Aquilina.