The late renowned author Frans Sammut did not take up an offer from former prime minister Joseph Muscat to contribute to a blog intended to put Daphne Caruana Galizia in a bad light, his son said on Monday.

“It went against his personal identity,” Mark Sammut told the public inquiry into the journalist's murder.

He recalled a conversation during which his father had casually commented about Muscat’s request.

“I clearly recall that time when we were having a father and son chat at the kitchen table and at the time, it did not strike me,” said Sammut. 

It was only years later, following media reports about Muscat’s testimony at the public inquiry, that reality “hit” him. 

When the former prime minister had approached his father, the name and format of the proposed blog might not have yet been decided upon, Sammut said.

Although his father used to do a lot of work for the Labour Party and “was not sympathetic towards Daphne Caruana Galizia,” yet he felt that he ought not to do “something of the sort” Mark Sammut said.  

He could not confirm the exact date of the incident nor whether the blog his father was asked to contribute to was in English or Maltese. 

Asked to explain his motive for testifying, Sammut said the reason was twofold. 
It was a “filial duty, a moral legacy towards my father,” and also one motivated by a sense of truth. 

Muscat, he added, had no right to “take State institutions and the people in general for a ride”.

What the former prime minister says “so convincingly, with a half-smile, is far from the truth and people must be careful,” concluded the witness, confirming a written statement he had presented earlier to the board. 

The victim’s sister, Corinne Vella, presented her researched dossier about tasteyourownmedicine, a website that is no longer online.

It had been set up with the specific purpose of harassing Daphne and anyone close to her, she said.

“When you stop, we stop,” was the motto of the website, registered in March 2010.

Although it stopped functioning around the same time as Glen Beddingfield’s blog started in 2016, its content was still available, Vella explained, adding that it was “very vicious sometimes”.

The hearing came to an end with testimony from former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman, Arnold Cassola, who explained that he had put his research skills to use by piecing together information gleaned through court testimonies and supported by documents obtained through freedom of information requests.

Focusing upon controversial projects such as Electrogas and the Mrieħel Quad Towers, Cassola referred to an unnamed representative who was allowed “full access to Castille.”

He also drew attention to a request he had made to the police commissioner to take criminal action for alleged perjury in respect of former prime minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri, Mark Gasan, Paul Apap Bologna and Edward Scicluna, who had all testified at the public inquiry. 

Cassola rounded off his testimony by thanking the board for deciding to proceed with the inquiry in spite of the prime minister’s attempt to impose a deadline. 
“Were it not for you, I wouldn’t be here to testify today,” he said. 

The first part of the hearing, involving testimony by assistant police commissioner Alexandra Mamo, was held behind closed doors. 

The inquiry, presided over by former judge Michael Mallia, Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino and Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro, continues on March 5. 
Lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi represented the victim’s family. 

State Advocate Chris Soler represented the state.