Former chief of staff Keith Schembri failed to turn up in court on Monday morning for a hearing in a libel suit, but his lawyer did, formally declaring that he was renouncing the brief.

Mr Schembri had filed the libel case against The Malta Independent. 

When the case was scheduled for hearing, Dr Andrew Sciberras, Mr Schembri's  lawyer since the filing of the libel suit three years ago, informing Magistrate Victor George Axiaq that he was renouncing the brief.

Dr Peter Fenech, the newspaper's lawyer, offered to postpone his final submissions to the next hearing so as to give Mr Schembri sufficient time to engage another lawyer.

The libel case stemmed from a story published on September 15, 2016 titled “Three quarters of a million transferred into PM’s Chief of Staff BVI company in 2014.”