A lawyer sued for libel by former prime minister Joseph Muscat has not yet been served notice of the case. 

Muscat is suing lawyer Christian Grima over a Facebook post alleging that he “blew up” journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

On Monday, Muscat’s lawyer Pawlu Lia informed the court that after checking the records in the court registry, he discovered that Grima had not yet been served. 

Lia said he had therefore told his client not to come to court, explaining Muscat’s no-show.

Faced with this information, the court, presided over by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, authorised the applicant to publish a notice of summons in a local newspaper. 

Meanwhile, the case was put off to July. 

The libel suit had been announced by Muscat via a Facebook post in which the former prime minister said that while he did not “believe in libel suits”, Grima had crossed the line with his comment. 

The defamation suit was sparked by a claim made by Grima in a post published on May 2, in reaction to a video clip of Muscat’s wife Michelle. 

In the clip, Michelle Muscat said that she felt sorrier about “what happened to her” than the journalist’s own family, because she would now “have to live with her [Daphne’s] lies.”

Grima promptly reacted, “Your husband blew her up, Michelle. That’s what happened to her.”

Eight days later, Muscat announced his libel suit, rebutting the lawyer’s claim as “totally false.”

Grima reacted by saying that he would face Muscat in court.