Malta Court Acquits Christian Man Prosecuted for Sharing His Testimony of Leaving Homosexuality

A Maltese court has found Matthew Grech not guilty of 'advertising conversion practices' — ending a three-year legal battle against the Christian man who was prosecuted for the crime of telling his own story. Grech's offense: appearing on a local television program and sharing how he left homosexuality through his faith in Christ. Malta's 2016 ban on conversion therapy is among the most aggressive in Europe, criminalizing not just therapeutic interventions but any public expression that could be interpreted as promoting change in sexual orientation — including, as this case demonstrated, a man's personal testimony about his own life. The acquittal is a significant victory for religious liberty in a continent where the legal space for orthodox Christian expression on sexuality has been steadily shrinking, and where several nations have passed or are considering laws that effectively criminalize biblical teaching on human sexuality. For Christians worldwide who have watched European hate speech and conversion therapy laws encroach on the freedom to share the gospel and its transformative power, the Malta verdict offers a rare reprieve — proof that even in the most restrictive legal environments, the right to tell one's own story has not yet been entirely extinguished.