Libel judgments that have ruled against Daphne Caruana Galizia and awarded damages to former minister Konrad Mizzi and Lindsey Gambin are a “human rights violation” and are attempting to harass her family into silence, the slain journalist’s sister has said.

On Friday, the Court of Magistrates, presided by Victor Axiak, handed down two libel judgments in favour of Mizzi and his former communications coordinator Gambin, who each filed suit against Caruana Galizia over a blog post which claimed the two were in an intimate relationship and that the minister’s marriage had broken down. 

In reaction, Corinne Vella, Caruana Galizia’s sister, said the decision violated the human rights of the journalist’s heirs, as they are not in a position to defend her work. 

“The court has found in Konrad and Sai Mizzi’s and Lyndsey Gambin's favour because, with the only person who knew anything about the investigation dead, her sons and husband could not mount an effective defence,” Vella said. 

“This is a human rights violation on many levels. People involved in the corruption that enabled and led directly to a journalist's murder continued to sue that murdered journalist in an attempt to harass her family into silence.”

She added that it seems that the magistrate has to acknowledge that the case would be “practically impossible” for Daphne’s family to win in her absence by tempering the damages awarded. 

Axiaq awarded Mizzi and Gambin each €1,000 in damages for a total of €2,000. 

Vella said the family will not be appealing the decision as it would create further opportunities for the plaintiffs to “harass” them. 

In 2014, Caruana Galizia had written a blog post titled 'This is the Super One journalist Konrad Mizzi has been seeing, and the reason his wife left for China'. 

In it, she claimed that shortly after the 2013 general election, Mizzi’s marriage had deteriorated and that he bought an apartment in Sliema and moved out of the family home in Fgura. 

She also alleged that Sai Mizzi’s China-based contract with Malta Enterprise had been concocted to fund her relocation to her native country.