Roderick Galdes had plenty of time to rebut allegations about his huge property empire spanning the UK, mainland Italy, Sicily, Malta and Gozo. He hasn't even denied or confirmed whether he owns that three floor apartment block in Udine near the Dolomites. He has studiously refused to confirm whether he owns the multiple properties in Syracuse, Ragusa and Catania. He can't deny those claims because the evidence is available. And he can't confirm because he would incriminate himself since many of those properties weren't listed in his assets declarations. Whether he declared those assets to the authorities or even whether he informed the Prime Minister about them is not known.

What's certain is that he hasn't even bothered giving an explanation as to how Malita Investments plc was brought to its knees after he became responsible for it. He didn't feel he should apologise for the utter mess he's left behind.

His only defence is targeting those who dare expose the impossibility of reconciling his massive property empire with his declared income. He resorts to inciting hatred against critics, presumably with the explicit objective of intimidating them into silence and deterring others from being tempted to openly discuss his case.

The disgraced former Minister saw fit to expend his energy inciting his followers against me for writing an opinion piece about him. He accused me of "envy and lies".  He uploaded a large photo of my face and called me "the famous agent of Nationalist disinformation... known for his continuous statements against Labour supporters (Laburisti) and for his extreme positions reflecting the most radical PN faction". He claimed that I mentioned members of his family "in a clear attempt to intimidate through his Times articles".

His brother's links to an Italian contractor who had been subcontracted works on two multi-million euro social housing projects had been flagged by the FIAU.

Galdes' inflammatory post had the desired effect. His loyal supporters piled in with threatening insults and abuse. They called me a drainage rat, a floor cloth, another piece of garbage, a Nazi SS official, an overflowing cesspit, a bespectacled lizard, a terrorist agent, pig vomit, cow dung and a hateful imbecile.  Joseph Sultana commented "this person is notorious, dirty, corrupt and has pigs' DNA". George Schembri advised Roderick Galdes to "make him swallow his tongue".  Peter de Raffaele suggested "cut his hatred". Josephine Frans Debono recommended "throw this garbage in the thrash can". "Hatred is the highlight of his adopted family," Anthony Bonello added. "When God created this man he must have been drunk" came another. A more sinister comment was "born a clown and he's going to die a clown".

Those comments were all uploaded on Galdes' Facebook page.  Others are too obscene to reproduce. The primary responsibility for those abusive insulting comments lies with the individuals uploading them.  But the owner of that page carries not only moral but also legal liability for those defamatory comments. That page belongs to Roderick Galdes - a former cabinet minister - and therefore his legal risk is even higher because his page is used for political communication.  The courts would treat that page as a political communication platform.

Under Article 82A of Malta's criminal Code (Chapter 9) incitement to hatred includes threatening, abusive or insulting words directed against a person for his political opinions.  What elevates general offensive speech into a criminal offence in Malta is the intent to stir up hatred against a person based on his political opinion. There's little doubt that those offensive abusive comments were directed at me solely because of my expressed political opinions. It is clear that Galdes' intention when he uploaded my photo and his hostile commentary was to incite hatred against me.

A conviction for incitement to hatred carries a 6 to 18 month prison sentence and fines reaching several thousand euros. Galdes left those comments on his page and made no attempt to remove them. He knowingly allowed a pattern of abusive commentary. As a former cabinet minister, Galdes has higher public visibility than anybody else especially at this time when the media focus was on him. He could reasonably foresee that uploading a photo and hostile commentary about an opinion-writer was bound to elicit heated and abusive comments.  He was therefore responsible for exercising stronger moderation over comments uploaded to his Facebook page.  By running his political page and knowingly allowing hate speech on it, Galdes is guilty of facilitating its dissemination. That criminal responsibility is particularly serious because that hate speech targets a political opponent.

In Australia a major High Court case, Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd v Voler, changed the landscape. In 2021 the Australian High Court ruled that owners of a Facebook page are treated as "publishers" of the defamatory or offensive comments of third parties on their page and were held liable.

Malta is an EU country. Ex-Minister Galdes should know that in the EU he is liable for those comments because he encouraged the hate speech through his hostile rhetoric targeting an opinion-writer and failed to remove language that is clearly considered "incitement to hatred" based on the target's political opinion.  The European Court of Human Rights, in the case Delfi AS v Estonia held that the page owner was liable for hate speech in user comments because the owner didn't remove those comments quickly enough.

Roderick Galdes surely must know about those comments on his Facebook page.  If he hasn't noticed them I'm bringing them to his attention.

But aside from the legal implications of Galdes' obnoxious behaviour, there are far more serious considerations.  When former high-ranking political leaders like Galdes encourage hate he continues to erode trust in democratic institutions. His political party has failed to distance itself or take disciplinary action against Galdes. That somebody who behaves so appallingly and irresponsibly could have wormed himself into cabinet raises concerns about Labour's selection of candidates and cabinet ministers.

Galdes continues to build on Labour's long history of harassing and threatening opinion writers and journalists.  He continues in Labour's legacy of creating a chilling effect on media freedom by emboldening his supporters to harass, abuse and insult critics. This is a pattern of Labour behavior that seeks to normalise hostility towards dissenting views, increase polarisation and heighten the risk of real violence by supporters acting on his rhetoric against his target. That such distasteful and irresponsible behaviour is not only condoned but expected from Labour ministers in a country that has witnessed the barbaric murder of Labour's arch critic is deeply disturbing. It also shows that Labour has learnt one lesson from the Caruana Galizia inquiry - that creating an atmosphere of impunity conveniently leads to the silencing of your critics