Chief Justice orders that libel cases are to be heard again
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The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday revoked two judgments on slander delivered by the Gozo court and ordered that the cases be heard again.
The judgment was delivered following two appeals filed by Anton F. Attard from decisions of the Gozo Magistrates’ Court.
Mr Attard had been accused by Fr Karm Grech and Fr George Aquilina of having slandered them by a publication, issued in June 2003 entitled L-Arci-Matrici li qatt ma kienet (The “grandmother church” that never was).
Both priests alleged that they had been defamed by the publication and so filed criminal action against Mr Attard in terms of both the Criminal Code and the Press Act.
The Gozo court heard that Mr Attard had published his work after Fr Grech had published the book Il-Knisja Arci-Matrici tal-Belt u l-Gzira ta’ Ghawdex (The “grandmother church” of Valletta and the island of Gozo). According to Mr Attard, Fr Grech had not provided factual evidence of his belief that the church of St George was the foremost church in Gozo.
Fr Aquilina had written the introduction to Fr Grech’s book.
Mr Attard had claimed in his work that Fr Aquilina was not a historian, but was a friend of the supporters of the church of St George in Gozo, and was therefore biased.
In its judgment, delivered last February, the Gozo court had, after reading Mr Attard’s book with self-expressed “patience and great dedication”, found Mr Attard guilty and had imposed the maximum fine of Lm500 in both cases.
Mr Attard sought recourse to the Court of Criminal Appeal presided over by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano.
He submitted that the proceedings filed against him on the basis of alleged violation of the Criminal Code were null and void as they had been moved by the police rather than by the priests as the alleged injured parties.
He added that he ought only to have been tried in terms of the Press Act.
The Court of Criminal Appeal pointed out that the proceedings filed against Mr Attard were private proceedings and that the application of the Press Act had been made at the request of the two priests.
The court said it agreed with Mr Attard that when an action for defamation was based upon a publication, then the applicable law was the Press Act.
The judgments appealed from had concluded that both priests had been defamed by the contents of Mr Attard’s book. But the section of the law quoted in the two judgments as defining the crime were erroneously indicated. This brought about a defect in the formalities required at law for a judgment.
The court of appeal concluded by annulling both judgments delivered against Mr Attard and by remitting the cases back to the Gozo court to hear the evidence again.
Lawyer Georgine Grech was counsel to the priests.
Lawyer Carmelo Galea represented Mr Attard.
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