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MT 29 July 2018

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17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 JULY 2018 INTERVIEW was the best way to tackle the situation? After all the lies – 10 years of lies about us – first of all, I nev- er filed a libel suit. To me, that was a waste of time. I don't have time to waste with people who lie about me without even ever having met me, or spoken to me personally. And as we know they were all inventions. This one, however, was an invention that... well, it was too big to ignore. It was a bit too much. It was an invention that, if never cleared up... what's the future? What's the future for everybody? I think that was the only way we could clear our names. The way this invention was presented made it very hard to dispel. There were even documents that were later found to be forgeries. Were there moments that you felt you weren't going to succeed in clearing your name? For instance, when you went to court to testify in the inquiry... For me, it was a trauma to have to go to court. I had never been in court before. No one had ev- er forced me to go, and I never chose to open a libel case myself. There were many things said about me, that maybe someone else would have sued for libel over. But I always said to myself, I prefer to live my own life; I do my thing; I do what I think is the right thing: I raise my children, I live my public life. And I don't waste time on these things. If it was the right attitude to take or not, I don't know. But obviously yes, that time I went to court. To others it might be an every- day experience, but to me it was a big thing. Especially because I should never have been there in the first place. I mean, what was this even about? [...] This story was so fabricated that... had it not been about me; had it been something that happened in a film, for example... it would have been funny. It's something out of the movies. [...] Egrant, for in- stance. The first time I heard that name was when the story came out. I don't have a Facebook page of my own; but the people around me do, and I would hear them say, 'Look, they're coming out with a new story...' So there was always this sense that they were going to invent something new. And I would think: these are people who clearly don't have anything left to invent. And I laughed, at the time. But when I was testifying before the mag- istrate, and he started asking me about all these names, I found myself thinking... but what does any of this have to do with me? Your testimony to the magistrate is part of the full report, which has not yet been made public. The Prime Minister has asked for it be published... Even I want it to be published; so that all those who are still spouting hot air [iparlaw fil-vojt] – I will say it straight – they can carry on talking. They can say what they like, and keep on sink- ing. Now, everyone knows the truth. Now, but not before. In the days after going to court, you appeared visibly shaken by the ongoing events. What was going through your mind at the time? The thing is this: that even though the people around us believed in us, with other people who didn't know us... it was the other way round. I began to feel that certain people would start looking at me in a certain way. What do you tell them? What do you do? You know these peo- ple think badly of you. You go somewhere with your children... it's like your children have the plague. Speaking of your children, who were nine years old at the time: what was the impact of media attention on their daily lives? We always tried to live as nor- mal a life as possible, and stick to a normal routine. I did this, because I believe that children need to have constants in their life: they need to know where they stand. From the very start, I told my children that they were lying about us [...] How did it affect their interaction with others, for example, at school? Was it a difficult time for them, or was there an attempt at buffering? The school did nothing to protect my children. For the school, it was business as usual. Obviously, because they were our children. When things hap- pened to other people's children, it was never 'business as usual'. With ours, it was. Which is fine: that helped us continue leading a normal life. But then, of course, at school there would be other children who would hear things, and over the weeks...especially when it came to the election... there were taunts about Panama. There were parties to which the entire class was invited, but not our children. And in the school social chat-group, there were other children who would post things about their father. There was all of this. [...] And it wasn't just my children; my niece, too, was taunted at school because of her aunt. The damage wasn't done only to my children and myself; but to all my family. Former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil was on the other side of the coin: what are your sentiments towards Busuttil today? I feel sorry for him, because he should never have done what he did, and stoop so low. It's a dis- grace. Do you think he knew it was fabrication? Either he knew, or he swallowed someone else's lie. If he knew, it would be more than a disgrace. He's supposed to be a lawyer, and he should know the repercussions of all this. He should have known better. So he's ignorant. Because if we say, he didn't know... then someone duped him. We'd have to say 'miskin' [poor thing]. But if it's not a case of 'miskin', then he's ignorant. He tried to do some- thing; and this 'something' he planned to do boomeranged on him terribly. It's an uncomfortable question to ask, but what about Daphne Caruana Galizia? What are your feelings towards her? If there is someone who wants Daphne Caruana Galizia to be alive today, that is me. When I heard the news about what hap- pened to her, I think I was more sorry than her own family. Her family could go on to make her a saint; but at the time I said to my- self: 'Now I will have to live with her lies'. I want her alive. [...] If she mentioned me 11,000 times on her blog, I could have taken her to court 11,000 times. Because it was always something negative. I will never forget one of them: just after my mother died, my brother – now, I don't often speak to my brother. He has his life, I have mine. But when our mother died, [and Daphne blogged about it], my brother was very hurt. We hadn't even buried her yet, and already they were writing things about her. And when [Daphne] wrote about Egrant, I had to ask my brother. I said, 'Do you believe this'? Because [...] I wouldn't have been surprised if, even... at the end of everything... [Pause] But you asked me what I thought of Daphne Caruana Galizia. I have never met her, nor was I ever in- troduced to her formally. I saw her once in a cafe; and when she was told I was there, she went to the toilet, and didn't come out until there was a whole queue of people outside the door. I guess she was waiting for me to leave. But I didn't leave. I was having a meeting over a coffee, and I stayed there. In the end she got fed up waiting, and left. She walked right past me; I looked at her to see what her reaction would be; and she lowered her head, almost un- til it hit the doorstep, and walked out. That was the last I saw of Daphne Caruana Galizia. This story was so fabricated that... had it not been about me; had it been something that happened in a f ilm, for example... it would have been funny. It's something out of the movies

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