Lawyers who have been assisting Konrad Mizzi in libel proceedings filed against Daphne Caruana Galizia seven years ago over claims that he was having an affair with his communications coordinator have formally renounced their brief.
Lawyers Aron Mifsud Bonnici, Abigail Critien and Christopher Vella filed a note in the records of the libel case, informing the court of their decision.
The slain blogger had alleged that Mizzi was having an extramarital affair with Lindsey Gambin, his communications aide, sparking the libel case.
Neither the former minister nor his wife Sai were present when the case was called.
Lawyer Edward Gatt, who is representing Gambin in parallel proceedings stemming from the same story, informed Magistrate Victor George Axiak that he was assuming Mizzi’s brief from here onwards.
During Monday's sitting, the court heard Superintendent Keith Arnaud testify about information gleaned from the contact list on Yorgen Fenech’s mobile phone, seized at the time of the businessman’s arrest in November 2019. Fenech is awaiting trial after having been accused of complicity to murder Caruana Galizia.
The family is claiming that that data included reference to Gambin as “lover of Konrad Mizzi”.
Arnaud said that he had typed four keywords, limiting his search to Fenech’s contact list as directed by the court.
He explained that ‘LIND’ had returned ‘Lindsey Gambin,’ ‘ONRAD’ (eliminating any doubt as to whether the name was typed with ‘K’ or ‘C’) returned Konrad Mizzi, ‘MIZZI’ also returned the former minister’s name while ‘SAI’ returned no result.
Asked by lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel about any additional data which could possibly confirm whether Gambin was indicated as Mizzi’s ‘lover’, Arnaud named a former colleague at the Homicide Squad who had sifted through all the data on Fenech’s phone.
That inspector would possibly be better placed to answer that query, Arnaud said.
As Arnaud took his leave, Magistrate Axiak asked both parties whether there was any chance of a settlement, observing further that the libels had been filed back in 2014.
“I will pass on the message,” said Gatt, pointing out that proceedings were formerly “moving in one direction” until a particular affidavit filed in these cases appeared to have stoked the flames.
Peter Caruana Galizia explained that the family had settled other libel cases, but in this case proceedings had dragged on, sometimes also delayed by the applicants themselves.
In light of such considerations, the court put off the proceedings to later this month for the applicants’ lawyer to provide information that could determine the way forward.