Adrian Zammit, Marsa’s most outspoken social media influencer, has been ordered to pay former Mayor Francis Debono €850 after losing a libel case. 

The case goes back to February 2019, when Debono filed for libel over three videos Zammit uploaded to his Facebook page. He claimed that Zammit was trying to ridicule him ahead of the local council elections in May of that year. 

Zammit had run in that election as an independent candidate.

Debono claimed that while he was elected to the council, he missed out on becoming Mayor because of Zammit’s comments. 

He took umbrage with Zammit constantly referring to him as “mustaċċun”, while claiming that he was a crook, incompetent, and pocketing from public duns. 

Zammit said that he was not referring to Debono and used imaginary characters to shed light on wider issues. He said he used “mustaċċun” so as not to offend anyone. 

However, Magistrate Rachel Montebello declared that the reference was clearly directed at Debono. 

“The people from Marsa who saw the videos knew exactly that Zammit was referring to Debono,” she said, stressing that there are boundaries between jokes and legitimate criticism. 

What do you think of the decision?