Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/584253
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2015 News 7 MAT THEW VELLA FARRIGHTIST Norman Lowell has branded a magistrate "an ass" for throwing out his defamation claim against MaltaToday. Lowell lost the defamation suit he filed in 2006 against managing editor Saviour Balzan and jour- nalist Matthew Vella over a se- ries of reports on the aftermath of an arson attack on the house of Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia. "The magistrate has made an ass of himself," Lowell said in his first reaction posted on Vi- vaMalta.net, the internet forum for his adherents. "He is to be pitied – he has been promoted to his level of incompetence. The case does not end here." Lowell told followers on Vi- vaMalta that he would appeal the court decision. "A disgraceful judgement. We shall appeal of course and hope that an Appeals Judge, possibly on the verge of retirement, will retain a sliver of moral fibre and pronounce justice. "The articles, as the Magis- trate well knows were not a fair, factual, political attack on me. They accused me of wilful murderous intent, when DCG's house was burnt. My anti-immigrant views have nothing to do with the merits of the case." Lowell also claimed that he was not the au- thor of the fo- rum comments M a l t a T o d a y quoted him in. "The po- lice knew this and it seems, they never traced the author," Lowell claimed. The articles reported online commentary made by Lowell and supporters as they reacted to the arson attack, on which same night Low- ell had organised a bar- beque at Dwejra, not far from the Caruana Gal- izia residence. A few hours after the arson attack, Lowell posted an entry on a far-right in- ternet forum V i v a M a l t a that read: "Yes, in- deed, I have drunk to the dregs and toasted the heroes in my own incorrigible ways." The comment was reported along- side various others made on the attacks on the internet forum. Magistrate Depasquale noted that Lowell had never contested the assertion that he embraced anti-immigrant views. "The complainant, as a leader of an organisation known as Imperium Europa, has harsh and hard-line views on the immigration issue and whoever is involved in the defence of immigrant rights and therefore, by right, these views certainly evoke a similarly harsh reaction against him and his or- ganisation," he said. The attack on Caruana Galizia's home had been the latest in a series of similar attacks on crit- ics of Lowell's extremist beliefs, with previous victims including priest Pierre Grech Marguerat and lawyer Katrine Camilleri from the Jesuit Refugee Service, and also MaltaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan. When throwing out the libel suit, Depasquale noted that Low- ell's behaviour and comments he had made on broadcast media were "not in any way acceptable in a democratic society, where diversity and multiculturalism form the foundations of Maltese society, as shown by the very language we speak". The former European Parlia- ment candidate also insisted his anti-immigrant views were sup- ported by 83% of the population. "We had 7,300 votes, by now probably doubled. We of Imper- ium Europa are determined to defend freedom of opinion, ex- pression and diffusion of ideas." After losing defamation case, Norman Lowell tells followers he hopes for 'appeals judge with moral fibre' Far-rightist Lowell dubs magistrate 'ass' THE chief of Malta's self-styled patriotic front has admitted being ignorant of the words in L-Innu Malti, the Maltese national an- them. The anthem penned by nation- al poet Dun Karm Psaila would have been ideal for Alex Pisani, a former army-man who has al- so dabbled in the film servicing industry, to prove his patriotic credentials. But on Xarabank, Pisani was unable on PBS to show the world what a true patriot he was. "I admit with the greatest sorrow that I do not know the words by heart. I think it's been over 50 years since I last sang it, but I guarantee you that 70% of the people don't know it by heart," he claimed. Undeterred, Pisani said Xara- bank's idea of having each of its panel members sing the anthem was a charade to downplay his otherwise positive showing. "I have my doubts about that sup- posedly Muslim guest, if she was an actress." The Ghaqda Patriotti Maltin is a Pegida-styled movement de- manding a referendum "against integration" of foreign nationals, which uses social media for its defamatory posts on refugees, asylum seekers and religions other than Catholicism. 'Patriots' chief Pisani can't sing national anthem Norman Lowell