Disgraced European Commissioner John Dalli threatens me with prosecution for harassing him if I don’t withdraw all that I wrote about him and bind myself over to never mention him again

Published: December 21, 2016 at 11:06am

This letter came by registered post yesterday. It will be ignored, of course – but if this disgraced former European Commissioner, corrupt former Malta government minister and consultant to the present Prime Minister persists in using the threat of police action to try to bully or frighten me into not writing about him again, while withdrawing everything I have written about him already, I may have to take some legal action myself.

Now you have some understanding of why journalists in this country buckle under so quickly, when people in a position of great power on an island with few to no institutional safeguards, use the threat of prosecution so abusively. And note that he speaks about prosecution for harassment – the police – and nowhere does he mention a civil suit for libel.

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19 December 2016

Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia
“Dar Rihana”
Bidnija
Limits of Mosta

Madam,

I write to you on behalf of Mr John Dalli, ID No. 81948M, of 2461, Portomaso, Saint Julian’s, in reference to the harassment (note: this is spelled harsamment) that he has suffered at your hands in the last few years and particularly in the months immediately prior to 3rd July this year.

I am instructed to inform you that your behaviour, by means of various blog-posts, the insinuations, incorrect statements and half-truths which you published about him constitute harassment (fastidju) in breach of articles 251A, 251B and 251C of the Criminal Code.

It appears that the publication of your articles about John Dalli, and the fact that you allowed comments about him to appear on your blog, was done with premeditated intent to embarrass him, ridicule him, instigate people against him, ruin him financially, and destroy the respect which he has won with such hard work and effort for the country over decades.

Apart from this, your behaviour amounts to secretly following a person – you and others who you coordinate. Your crime is aggravated by the fact that it has caused my client to be alarmed and distressed, and it has had a considerable adverse effect on his normal daily activities. And all this when you knew, or should have known, that your behaviour would, on each and every one of these occasions, instil fear in my client and cause him to be alarmed. Your crime is further aggravated by the fact that your behaviour is motivated by political opinions or beliefs, or some other kind of opinion, and this in breach of articles 251AA, 251BA, 251C and 251D of the Criminal Code.

These crimes are further aggravated by the fact that they have been committed against an elderly person, given that John Dalli was born on 5 October 1948 (article 222A of the Criminal Code), and also because they were committed via one or more means mentioned in article 337B of the Criminal Code, and this in view of articles 251BA and 251D of the Criminal Code.

My client would like to avoid having you prosecuted once or several times, and because of this he has instructed me to write to you in an attempt at finding a solution in which you will withdraw all allegations you have made in his regard and bind yourself over to never molest him again in any way or by any means whatsoever, while he will renounce his right to have you prosecuted for all that you have done to him so far. However, he will reserve the right to proceed against you even for what you have done to him already should you not fulfil your obligations in this matter.

I believe that it would be useful to set up a meeting between the two parties and their legal counsel so that the situation may be set out and, if possible, an agreement reached.

I await your reply in the affirmative, and if it does not arrive by the end of the current year, Mr Dalli will proceed at law without further warning.

Dr Carmelo Galea
Carmelo Galea & Associates
83 Sir Luigi Camilleri Street
Victoria
Gozo

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