Make right-wing candidate pay defamation costs, MGRM tells Electoral Commission

Malta’s gay rights movement MGRM has called on the Electoral Commission to take action against ABBA party leader Ivan Grech Mintoff to fulfil his court obligations and pay damages from a libel case.

Grech Mintoff, the conservative TV pundit, owes MGRM the sum total of €3,975 in libel damages and court expenses, which he lost both in a first court judgement an then again on appeal.

“Despite empty promises by Grech Mintoff as well as further legal action against him to secure payment, in turn incurring further costs, Grech Mintoff has to date failed to pay the owed amount,” MGRM’s lawyer Gialuca Cappitta told the chairman of the Electoral Commission.

“Any individual actively and maliciously defying court orders and refusing to pay an amount ordered by the court shoud not remain unchecked and be allowed to contest any public election,” Cappitta said.

MGRM asked the Commission to take all action and assess Grech Mintoff’s eligibility of his candidature for the 2022 general elections.

MGRM  accorded €3,000 in damages for defamation by a court which found against conservative politician Ivan Grech Mintoff, over defamatory statements he broadcast on YouTube and on Facebook.

The NGO had also sued pro-life organisation Gift Of Life, for alleging that the gay rights movement was being funded by the American pro-choice organisation Planned Parenthood – the largest single provider of reproductive health services, including abortion, in the United States.

The MGRM said Grech Mintoff’s defamatory statements included alleging on Facebook that an MGRM representative had admitted “taking money from murdered children to fund her own personal agenda”; stating on television that the MGRM “took money from people who killed children”; and suggesting on Facebook that the MGRM were “in bed with the world’s foremost abortion promoters”.

The court had found Grech Mintoff made “consciously economical” assertions that were based on substantially incorrect facts, which he knew were not attributable to the MGRM. “Such obfuscation shows that Grech Mintoff wanted to damage the MGRM on the subject of abortion, and this cannot go unpunished… these were serious allegations, suggesting that the MGRM obtained funds generated from abortion services, something that impinged upon the credibility of the organisation.”