University academic and blogger Simon Mercieca denied receiving any payment from Yorgen Fenech’s mother, insisting that she never interfered in his writing, not even when he invited her for a meal at his family home.

Mercieca strongly rebutted allegations made by author and publisher Mark Camilleri whom he sued for libel over an article wherein he alleged that Mercieca received payments from Patricia Fenech for writing in favour of her son who awaits trial for alleged complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

When cross-examined by Camilleri’s lawyer, Mercieca explained how his interest in the murder case first developed while following media reports about testimonies given during the compilation of evidence.

The way certain things were being said “flashed red lights,” said Mercieca. “Something was not functioning well.”

That line of thought was strengthened further when he received an anonymous letter containing information related to the murder case.

As a university professor practising demographic studies, Mercieca had regularly followed and researched judicial cases, both civil and criminal, directing his students to carry out research, long before Fenech’s case.

“Can you explain your demographic analysis so far on this case?” asked the respondent’s lawyer, Joseph Mizzi.

“If by demographics you understand simply calculations on population, there are none. But demography also signifies the influence on a mass of people,” said Mercieca, adding that he kept his academic work and blog totally separate.

The libel case concerned the blog.

“Was your acquaintance with Yorgen Fenech’s mother another factor?” asked Mizzi.

“It added to the interest in the case,” replied Mercieca.

But he began to pen newspaper articles before 2013. He was also involved in drawing up the post-election report on the Nationalist Party’s defeat at the 2013 polls.

He then turned to Facebook to defend Adrian Delia when there was an internal power struggle within the party to remove him as Opposition Leader.

When his friends on Facebook totalled over 5000, he could receive no other friend requests.

That was when Mercieca’s wife suggested starting a blog.

When details of alleged chats between Fenech and Delia began to emerge, the murder case was “used against Delia to remove him.”

“Daphne also did not want Delia,” said Mercieca.

“That’s where my interest in the [murder] case started….It started in defence of Delia. The allegations by Jason Azzopardi and others continued even after Delia was removed.”

When Camilleri’s lawyer pointed out that there were “over 166 articles” wherein the blogger stood up for Fenech, Mercieca rebutted that those “200 or so articles” were among “thousands” of other articles on his blog.

Describing himself as a “fast writer” Mercieca said that the blog only took “an hour or two” of his time.

There were others who contributed too.

“It usually takes longer to read through the different versions published by different newspapers,” he added.

Asked whether he received any remuneration for his blog, Mercieca said he only received “some very minor contributions” from the general public which he used to cover expenses.

Questions then zoomed in on Yorgen Fenech’s mother.

Mercieca first got to know her around the time of her son’s murder case. He was told that she originally hailed from Paola.

But he was the one to approach her.

Public comments labelling Patricia Fenech as “a murderer’s mother” were not condoned by him, Mercieca said.

Asked whether the woman had ever offered him gifts or freebies, Mercieca recalled a single occasion when he had invited Patricia for a meal at his family home.

It was around Christmas and she had gifted the family a food hamper.

And when every summer he took his family on a one-time day by the pool at the Hilton, he always paid in cash.

Patricia Fenech had once invited Mercieca and his family to her family home, sending an invite via Messenger.

But she never offered payments and never interfered in the subject matter of his public writing.

She thanked him for his work but stopped there.

Mercieca denied having ever met the mother and her son’s lawyers at Portomaso.

“Never, never,” he stressed.

She once sent him a letter via Messenger asking whether he could publish it.

“I had no difficulty publishing,” said Mercieca.

Asked why in most of his articles he claimed that Yorgen was not guilty, Mercieca clarified that he never argued about guilt or otherwise.

“I say that Yorgen Fenech was framed.”

Asked about any damage caused by Camilleri’s article, Mercieca replied “yes and no.”

He had faced great pressure from civil society group Repubblika and the University Rector to have him fired.

He had also experienced some trouble with a local bank which first accepted a €50 cheque addressed to him and deposited by his wife, but subsequently returned it, saying that the endorsement was “irregular.”

Camilleri had labelled Mercieca a “demented academic.”

“I didn’t suffer monetary damage but academically yes. Obviously you get ostracized,” finished off the witness.

The case is being presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello.

Lawyer William Cuschieri assisted Mercieca.

Lawyer Joseph Mizzi is assisting Camilleri.