Defence says Vince Farrugia ‘made political contacts to exercise influence’ on court hearing

The defence lawyers of building contractor Sandro Chetcuti, who is accused of the attempted murder of GRTU director-general Vince Farrugia, have asked the court of Magistrate Edwina Grima to turn down a request by Farrugia's lawyers for a media blackout on court evidence.

Farrugia, 67, made a formal request to the law courts for a ban on the publication of text messages sent from his mobile phone to third parties, before and after he sustained an assault by Sandro Chetcuti.

Chetcuti's lawyers, Emanuel Mallia and Edward Gatt, asked the court to deny the "odious" request, saying Vince Farrugia had attempted to destroy Chetcuti's reputation by banning the publication of evidence that "shows he fabricated evidence by contacting journalists to give importance to his case."

Chetcuti's lawyers said the SMSes had show members of Farrugia's family "made direct and influential contact with witnesses who were going to testify on sensitive matters", that Farrugia "made various political contacts with authorities to exercise influence on these proceedings" and that Farrugia was only uncomfortable with the SMSes when the media started publicising them.

"Vince Farrugia previously testified on an SMS from Chetcuti, and now he is asking for a lifebuoy by asking for a ban on the SMSes that embarrass him. These SMSes throw a shadow on the veracity and credibility of the prosecution's witnesses."

Mallia and Gatt added that Farrugia could sue for libel, but that there was no law to provide a ban on the publication of the evidence, and that there was no obscene or immoral content in the SMSes that warranted censorship.

"The original request is motivated by Farrugia's preoccupation of the media coverage about his behaviour and what he wrote. What is important is the separation of the courts from the media."

In a previous sitting, SMS messages presented by the defence showed that Farrugia was in contact with a third party, asking him to influence Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia in a bid to undermine his Chetcuti in her blog. "This is filth and Vince Farrugia wants to hide from it but he can't hide from it and I won't let him use a GRTU publication to continue his campaign," Mallia said, referring to a recent outburst against Mediatoday managing editor Saviour Balzan in the GRTU's pamphlet.

The defence is also trying to discredit previous testimonies given by consultant radiologist Anthony Samuel, after questioning Samuel's integrity and accusing him of exaggerating the medical results because of his strong ties with the Farrugia family.

When he testified last July, Samuel admitted he knew Farrugia's family and denied denied altering the medical results. Under cross-examination, Samuel admitted having dated Farrugia's daughter Marie-Claire Farrugia, who is also a doctor at Mater Dei Hospital.