The Diplomat
The Supreme Court of Gibraltar has fined Vox MP Agustín Rosety Fernández de Castro £20,000 (about 23,500 euros) for publishing a series of tweets against Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabián Picardo-
The judgement of the Gibraltar court was handed down after Picardo took legal action against the MP, believing that his statements were “highly defamatory and false”. The judge includes in his ruling the eight tweets written by Rosety, between 2 November and 18 December 2019, in which, among other things, he said of Picardo that he “runs” the “hotbed of smuggling and corruption” in Gibraltar, and accused him of being a “protector of smugglers and promoter of money laundering”.
Agustín Rosety, a retired general and Vox MP for Cádiz, did not appear at the trial and presented a series of allegations that were rejected.
The court ruled in favour of Picardo and ordered the MP to pay £20,000 in damages and the costs of the trial, which will be determined at a later date.
The Gibraltar Chief Minister said in a statement yesterday that he was satisfied with the judgement and assured that the compensation would be donated in full to a Gibraltar charity. He also indicated that, from now on, an enforcement procedure will be initiated in Spain. Picardo recalled that he has already been able to successfully enforce a defamation claim against Manos Limpias in Spain.
