Cyrus Engerer, a Labour candidate for the European Parliament elections, has been sentenced to a two-year jail term suspended for two years.

The decision was handed down by Mr Justice Michael Mallia in a 17-page appeals court judgment.

Mr Engerer had been accused of keeping and/or circulating pornography and computer misuse. He was also accused of copying data vilifying a man.

The first court had acquitted Mr Engerer but the decision was overturned on appeal.

The court said it was satisfied that the prosecution had proven that Mr Engerer was the author and mastermind of the dissemination of compromising pictures on the internet to the detriment of his victim.

THREATS

In its judgement, the court said it could not ignore Mr Engerer's threats to the victim to stop the case to prevent other shameful things from being uncovered.

He implemented the threat at the end of the compilation of evidence when the defence exhibited a pen drive which allegedly included footage about the victim gathered by Mr Engerer.

Rightly so, the prosecution objected to this but the court did not give any directive and the envelope containing the pen drive remained in the acts of the proceedings.

This showed to which level Mr Engerer had stooped to portray the victim in a negative light and make him withdraw his criminal complaint.

Fortunately, he failed to commit such a deceitful plan, the court said.

Mr Engerer was ordered not to communicate with his victim or the victim’s family for one year.

The European Parliament Elections Act says that: "No person shall be qualified to stand for election as a member of the European Parliament or, if elected, to remain a member thereof if, whether in Malta or in any other Member State... he is serving a sentence of imprisonment (by whatever name called) exceeding twelve months imposed on him by a court in a Member State or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended."

However, last March the words "or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended" were deleted.

PN CALLS ON PRIME MINISTER TO SHOULDER RESPONSIBILITY

Mr Engerer at the launch of Dr Muscat's biography. Photo supplied by the Nationalist Party.

The Nationalist Party called on the Prime Minister to shoulder political responsibility for the case.

In a statement this afternoon the PN said the court’s judgement was clear proof of the Prime Minister’s immaturity.

In order to score a political goal against the PN, Dr Muscat had accepted within his party a person accused of spreading pornography, a crime now confirmed by the Court of Appeal, the PN said.

The Prime Minister now had a duty to say what steps he would be taking against his preferred candidate and he should seek a public apology for permitting a person accused and now found guilty of a serious crime to contest the MEP elections, the PN said.

Mr Engerer was not present for the Labour Party's activity in Gozo this evening. He also did not attend a seminar for MEP candidates hosted by the MUT.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who spoke at a political event in Xewkija, made no reference to the case.