Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi retracted a Facebook post calling National Heritage Minister Owen Bonnici a criminal and a liar.

Bonnici had filed for libel in 2019 after Azzopardi had made the Facebook posts. 

Posting on Facebook, Bonnici said: "Do you recall the facebook posts written by Jason Azzopardi before the elections where he had said that I am a criminal and a liar? I had promptly and immediately filed libel proceedings against Azzopardi."

"This morning during an open sitting in Court, in public and in writing, Jason Azzopardi retracted any allegations that those posts make in my regards. In this way, the scope of the court case has been reached. I showed that this was an exercise of mud-slinging."

"This is not the first time that I took Azzopardi to Court and was proven right. I am determined to keep delivering my utmost, as I have been doing throughout my whole career in the service of the public, so that with renewed energy and hand in hand with the rest of my colleagues, our country and the Maltese and Gozitan families keep going from strength to strength and move forward," the minister said.

The case was ceded.