Give me a good name and you can throw me to the wolves. So the saying goes. For this reason the law has always protected a man’s reputation from the malicious lies of others.

However, the same law states that if the writer can prove in court the substantial truth of the allegations they have made about the complainant, they will be acquitted.

In this regard, many a politician have not been properly advised beforehand about the rule that a complainant is fully subject to cross-examination about every detail of the said allegations.

Many a self-righteous bluff master has come undone through mistakenly thinking that the evidence supporting the truth of his crimes is well hidden and beyond the reach of the defence.

Rosianne Cutajar, a cocky Labour MP, claimed she was defamed by one Mark Camilleri, who had made a number of accusations that she abused her public office, received substantial gifts of cash, and that she privately admitted to her friend that she was in politics, like all her “other” party colleagues, to get her mouth in the trough.

She moved swiftly to sue the former head of the National Book Council with the ostensible support of a crowd-waving prime minister who immediately accused her critics of misogyny.

Unfortunately for both her and her party leader, Camilleri defied a court order and published the damning WhatsApp chat evidence a day before the court sitting. The said crowd waver quietly joined in with the misogynists and, within days, had banished Cutajar from the Labour Party.

There was no surprise when she failed to turn up in court on all the days when she was due to being cross-examined by Camilleri’s legal team. Belatedly, she finally withdrew her case, citing unconnected personal reasons.   

Schembri withdrew on the spot, walking out of court to avoid defeat at the hands of the undeniable truth

In the past few years, we have witnessed other politicians or public officers suddenly withdrawing from the court battle the day they faced the prospect of being cross-examined on what had since come to light.

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff was accused by Simon Busuttil in 2016 of having done everything in order to receive bribes, in the millions, through a web of contacts and their new secret offshore companies in Dubai and Panama.

Keith Schembri, a businessman of good character, took the defamer Busuttil to court to defend his reputation. For three years, all went well for him until the day of his cross-examination.

He thought he could simply refuse to answer any questions about the offshore conspiracy and its set-up. His lawyers feebly argued that Hearnville Inc. of Panama was a private and confidential matter.

The magistrate, a man of no nonsense, properly warned the witness Schembri to either answer or be found in contempt of court. The drama ended when, on legal advice, Schembri withdrew on the spot, walking out of court to avoid defeat at the hands of the undeniable truth.

Again we saw it happen in the case of Chris Cardona, deputy leader of his party in government, who was alleged to have attended a brothel with his assistant in the middle of a government business trip to Germany, and who sued the journalist who published the story in vivid detail before their return to Malta.

Being also a man of good character, he engaged his lawyers to file no less than four suits and four garnishee orders on all the journalist’s bank accounts. He wielded his proverbial axe in no mean way, that is, until he smelt what she had up her sleeve.

The legendary journalist let it be known that she had managed to obtain the deputy’s phone data relative to his whereabouts on the night of the brothel visit. Cardona started to find every excuse for postponing his testimony in court.

On October 16, 2017, the journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was brutally assassinated by three gangsters paid to do the job.

Days after the murder, Cardona’s lawyers withdrew his fake SLAPP attacks using the death of the defendant as a respectable retreat. He too finally learnt that you quit while you still have a bit of yourself left.

Eddie Aquilina