Blogger Caruana Galizia threatens Pullicino Orlando with legal suit

Malta Independent columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia has given notice of a civil suit against Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, over a statement he made on One TV that she had once told him Richard Cachia Caruana had set her upon him.

Pullicino Orlando on Tuesday morning said on One TV that Caruana Galizia had called him to say former Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, "was working against him" in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 general election.

The MP has claimed that Cachia Caruana used his acolytes to do his bidding and force him to resign shortly after his re-election in 2008 in the face of serious allegations on his rental of his land in Mistra.

In a statement, Caruana Galizia said she had already denied this under oath in court during a confrontation of witnesses in a libel suit instituted by Richard Cachia Caruana against Mediatoday managing editor Saviour Balzan.

Pullicion Orlando reiterated the claim in parliament on 18 June, when he voted with the Opposition in a motion that forced the resignation of Cachia Caruana, a chief party strategist, from the role of EU ambassador.

"Any person of common sense would understand that I would never have had any interest in, incentive to or inclination towards betraying a friend of more than two decades' standing, and moreover to somebody I had known for just three weeks or thereabouts," she said.

"Dr Pullicino Orlando's repetition of the same stories, even in the face of denials and statements by those he names, is outrageous and offensive, and not only to those he involves in his personal battles.

"It is offensive, too, to those who are now being forced to listen to his repetitive roadshow on television and radio, and to read about him and his obsessions in their favourite newspapers."

Caruana Galizia, who mounted a campaign on her blog in 2008 to defend Pullicino Orlando against the accusations made by then Labour leader Alfred Sant - even exhorting readers to vote for Pullicino Orlando - said she will "never forgive [herself] for voting for him, for giving him the benefit of the doubt even for such a brief while, and for not understanding immediately I met him that here indeed stood a charlatan and knave."