MaltaToday journalist Raphael Vassallo has filed a libel suit against blogger Manuel Delia over comments in one of his blog posts which appeared to suggest that Mr Vassallo had a hand in the “mafia conspiracy that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia.”

The allegedly defamatory comments were made by Mr Delia in one of his blog posts on October 28 entitled Long Read: 416bis where reference was made to the Italian Criminal Code and specifically to article 416bis which spoke of ‘omertà’ as a form of tacit complicity used to help masterminds of mafia crimes to get away with their wrongdoing. 

“This is where Raphael Vassallo comes in. Unwittingly, or perhaps because he is a part of the mafia conspiracy that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, he perpetrates the myth that arresting and punishing the triggermen resolves the crime. That is how he (and others) cover up for the mafia, thereby being part of it,” Manuel Delia wrote in his blog.

Mr Vassallo strongly rebutted those allegations, declaring in a public statement, “At this stage I will not even bother rebutting Manuel Delia’s absurd and highly defamatory allegations in my regard – though I certainly will, in court – other than to say that the above statement constitutes a malicious, deliberate and unequivocal attempt to damage my professional reputation as a journalist, on the basis of a blatant lie,” Mr Vassallo said.

The applicant is calling upon the courts to declare the comments to be libelous in his regard and to condemn Mr Delia to the payment of damages.

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo signed the libel application.