Today, my lawyer filed my appeal against Judge Toni Abela’s sentence against the right to publish Yorgen Fenech’s chats with Rosianne Cutajar. This is probably the first time in my life that I am appearing in front of Malta’s highest Court on my own volition and request: the Constitutional Appeals Court. These cases are are mostly presided by the Chief Justice himself.
The last time I think I appeared in front of the Constitutional Appeals Court was when Attorney-General Peter Grech appealed the sentence over the “Li Tkisser Sewwi” case.
Despite my quite clear public intransigence, I am not happy that I have to appear in front of this Court for a judgement. This case should have never arrived at this point. I’m bearing the legal costs for the State’s breakdown in rule-of-law.
Rosianne Cutajar got away with bribery, fraud and outright corruption. She bullied a journalist and used the full force of the law against a journalist alongside with public bullying and visceral propaganda backed by the Labour Party’s news outlets and television channels. She filed a criminal case which she lost against a journalist as part of her bullying campaign and withdrew a libel case which she herself had started.
The State went on to protect her and to prevent her prosecution for her crimes.
Yorgen Fenech who is still awaiting trial hasn’t even been prosecuted yet for his financial crimes.
Yet the State wants to place all the responsibility for Yorgen Fenech’s murder case on my shoulders, simply for publishing incriminating material about him and his political associates.
Nonsense.
No sane Judge would defend this disastrous state of affairs and total breakdown in the rule-of-law unless they are totally captured by corrupt interests. In fact my appeal makes a strong case against the Judge’s sentence as it cites the Judge’s abusive way he used vexatious and libelous comments against me that weren’t even part of the acts of Court. The Judge turned an important case about the right to publish and the rule-of-law in Malta in a backdrop where publishing and journalism are addressing the deficiencies of the State, into a personal matter that included a direct and libelous attack against me.
This case is historically important for the right to publish and the free press in a backdrop of a breakdown in rule-of-law and has got nothing to do with me personally. Those who have used vexatious allegations against me and personalised this case are only doing so to discredit the evidence against Rosianne Cutajar and other political associates of Yorgen Fenech. Ultimately, one should ask: whose interests are these people truly serving?
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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