A magistrate has ruled that Jason Azzopardi's claim of a cross-border conspiracy to introduce abortion in Malta was not defamatory to American national Andrea Prudente.

The case goes back to 2022 when Prudente and her partner, Jay Weeldreyer, were holidaying in Gozo. Prudente experienced complications in her pregnancy and although doctors at Mater Dei Hospital told her the pregnancy was no longer viable, they refused to perform an abortion.

Azzopardi had claimed in a Facebook post that unidentified people had conspired with foreigners to bring over "a pregnant woman" to Malta to instigate the abortion debate on the "pretence that her life was in danger".

Prudente and her partner had sued Azzopardi for libel damages, claiming the post was defamatory in their regard.

However, Magistrate Rachel Montebello ruled that although there was no doubt the pregnant woman referred to in the post was Andrea Prudente, the potential defamatory claim of a conspiracy was not referring to her.

The magistrate ruled that if anything, any right-thinking ordinary individual reading the post would have reached the conclusion that Prudente was not involved in the conspiracy but rather was "a passive subject" of it. Neither the claim that the life-threatening pregnancy was a "pretence" could be interpreted as being a reference to Prudente.

For this reason, the court ruled against Prudente and her partner because the potential defamatory language in Azzopardi's post was not referring to them.

The magistrate ordered that the expenses of the case be borne by lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic, who was representing Prudente and her partner.