Mark Camilleri has been acquitted of insulting and threatening former Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar in a Facebook post warning the politician that he would become “her worst nightmare” unless she resigned from politics.
The court acquitted Camilleri after finding that prosecutors charged him with a crime that only applied to cases when one person threatened or insulted another in private.
Given that Camilleri wrote his comments on social media, the criminal charge did not apply and he was acquitted.
Police from the cybercrime unit had pressed charges against the former National Book Council chairman after Cutajar filed a report over various comments posted on Facebook in her regard.
Camilleri claimed that the MP was “a liar and totally corrupt” and that he would only step down from his claims if she “resigned from politics completely”.
Those comments were posted on October 29, 2021.
Camilleri’s comments revolved around claims that the politician had been in a romantic relationship with businessman Yorgen Fenech at a time when he had been outed as the owner of the secret company 17 Black.
Fenech is currently awaiting trial as an alleged accomplice in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
When testifying in the criminal proceedings against Camilleri, Cutajar said that as a public figure, she accepted criticism but she felt threatened by his comments.
When delivering judgment on Monday the court, presided over by Magistrate Simone Grech, concluded that there was clear evidence that Cutajar had filed her police report because of those social media posts.
She felt threatened and offended by those comments.
Camilleri was charged under article 339(1)(e) of the Criminal Code, which was a contraventional offence involving words, gestures and writings by one person against another, limited to the two people concerned.
Referring to case law on the subject the court concluded that the behaviour reported by Cutajar did not fit within the parameters of this offence and thus proceeded to pronounce an acquittal.
The court said that the offence under the article that Camilleri was charged with was limited to insults and threats that remained between the parties concerned. If those comments were communicated to at least one third party, the case did not fall within the characteristics of that offence.
Lawyer Joseph Mizzi was counsel to Camilleri.
Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo appeared parte civile.
'Public's interest trumps Fenech's rights': Repubblika
The judgement comes three days after Camilleri was ordered to remove WhatsApp chats between Rosianne Cutajar and Yorgen Fenech offline by Malta’s data protection commissioner.
In a statement, Rule of Law NGO Repubblika expressed concern over the commissioner's decision.
"Repubblika hopes that Camilleri's appeal from the decision leads to the acknowledgement that the public's interest to learn of the abuse of power trumps any right that Yorgen Fenech expects he has to keep hidden his complicity in the abuse of power by politicians," it said in a statement.
The NGO claimed the commissioner's decision went down well with Prime Minister Robert Abela, who wanted to 'forgive' Cutajar and reconsider her role within the PL.