The Labour Party said today that the Court of Appeal had confirmed the facts of a serious case in which the protagonist was PN deputy leader contender Toni Bezzina.

In June last year, a court has threw out two libel cases instituted by Mr Bezzina over reports in newspapers Kullħadd and L-Orizzont on works at the Żurrieq PN club.

Mr Bezzina's libel claims were found to be unjustified.

Toni Bezzina

The two articles in question were published in May 2012 and concerned Mr Bezzina, who at the time was employed by the Public Works Department and who had been investigated by the Resources Ministry.

The Labour Party said today that Mr Bezzina had abused of his role in the public sector when he sent government employees to work at the PN club.

To hide this fact, Mr Bezzina had made the workers sign a false declaration.

The workers had signed the declaration because they were afraid of Mr Bezzina, the PL said.

Former PN leader Simon Busuttil, the PL said, had used the libel suits excuse so as not to take immediate decisions on his MP.

Now that the court had confirmed that the reports were factual and that Mr Bezzina had abused his public post, his position was no longer tenable.

Opposition leader Adrian Delia should understand there were no more libel suits behind which to hide, the PL said.

But in another statement, Mr Bezzina said that in the appeal did not change the fact the first Court had confirmed that the Labour Party had lied about him.

He added that he respected court decisions and noted that the internal inquiry which had been carried out had confirmed that no worker had done any work on the PN club during office hours and that he had personally paid for the material used.

These facts, he said, had not been denied by any court.