'Liar' and 'transparent tadpole': MPs, columnist testify in hate mail case

Two Opposition MPs and an outspoken university academic testified on Monday about a string of anonymous letters sent to their workplace and homes which they said were meant to stop them from airing their political views in public.  

When the first letter landed on his desk on July 12, consultant surgeon Kevin Cassar “turned cold” as he opened the envelope and read the abusive and insulting contents inside. 

Cassar is a Times of Malta opinion writer. 

Cassar was testifying in proceedings against 71-year old Valletta resident Joseph Mary Borg, who was arraigned last month as the suspect behind numerous threatening letters to various public figures and others who, like Cassar, regularly expressed political views in local media. 

On August 4, Cassar received another letter at his workplace, running much along the same lines and in the same handwriting, replete with vulgarity and insults towards his mother who “had given birth to some form of a transparent tadpole.”

The sender branded Cassar “a liar” whose pen “exuded vomit” and who “deceived the public,” the court was told.

The letters referred to Cassar’s relatives, including his “brother-in-law” Opposition MP Beppe Fenech Adami...