A Nationalist Party election candidate was slapped with an arrest warrant this morning after he failed to turn up in court.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Joseph Mifsud, noted that Ryan Mercieca had not filed an application for a deferral and also fined him €350 for contempt of court.

Mr Mercieca's lawyer Roberto Montalto said he would be filing an application for the revocation of the warrant and fine since his client had been misinformed about the time of the sitting.

The case concerned an incident last January within the corridors of the law courts when Joseph Camilleri, the treasurer of the Gozo NGOs Association, had allegedly been the target of menacing words uttered by Mr Mercieca.

Mr Camilleri had just testified in libel proceedings filed by Mr Mercieca against Josef Caruana as editor of the Maltese paper it-Torċa over an article which alleged that Mr Mercieca was in hot water for failing to produce documents related to EU funds.

Mr Camilleri claimed that Mr Mercieca had approached him in the corridor outside the courtroom, saying "issa ġejja tiegħek” (“you will soon get your come-uppance”).

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