Fenech talked about eliminating me in 2019 because of criticism from Electrogas

[ad_1]

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi claimed he was the subject of a coordinated campaign of attacks from Yorgen Fenech, who he said wanted to “eliminate” him in 2019.

Azzopardi, a lawyer for Caruana Galizias, filed the legal protest this morning after Fenech’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against the police commissioner in an attempt to prosecute Azzopardi and blogger Manuel Delia for trying to influence a judge.

Azzopardi denied the allegation that he and Delia launched a “systematic attack” on Judge Giovanni Grixti, while the judge deliberated on Fenech’s request for bail.

Azzopardi said it was “shameful and astonishing” that the accused’s legal protest revolved around the obvious belief that Grixti was likely to be influenced or pressured. “This is an opinion… frankly terrifying and this lawyer is stunned to see how the defendant drafts such a shocking statement with such ease. It may be that he uses his own measure.

The day Grixti was due to decide on Fenech’s bail, which he denied, saw news broke that the judge had acquired in 2008 a boat that previously belonged to Fenech’s late father, George, the magnate of Tumas.

Azzopardi argued that the bail denial on August 19 was uninfluenced by anyone and pointed out that the grounds for denial were the same as all other decrees denying Fenech’s bail.

Azzopardi claims that although the defense knows the judge gave the attorney general 24 hours to respond to his request for bail, Fenech’s defense attorney Charles Mercieca had already called the registry on several occasions. to ask him if there had been a decree, which was deemed odd. by court staff.

Azzopardi said he wrote to the chief justice to inform him that Fenech filed his bail application on Monday, August 16, while Grixti was the duty judge. At the time, the acts of the case were still in the chambers of magistrate Rachel Montebello. Thus, when the Attorney General replied on August 17, the deadline given by Grixti, the acts had not even been received by him.

Azzoprdi said he himself called the criminal court registry on August 17, before the 12 p.m. cut-off time, where he was told Grixti had scheduled the bail hearing for the next day. When he asked how it could be given that the GA had not even filed his answer yet, the clerk said to him: “I am telling you what the judge told me.

He argued that at this stage the criminal court was not yet competent because the documents had not been received by him.

Azzopardi also told the Chief Justice that Grixti had purchased the 50-foot yacht Spensierata from George Fenech and that “until at least 2012” Grixti, then a magistrate, regularly met George Fenech’s brother, Ninu, in his room. exhibition of Qormi for coffee and long conversations. “He’s a friend of the Fenech family, the same family of Yorgen Fenech,” Azzopardi said, arguing that the judge should never have presided over the bail hearing.

“Coordinated campaign” against Azzopardi

Azzopardi also accused the Fenech defense of having invented a pretext to make it difficult for Caruana Galizia’s legal team to perform their duties.

He said that on several occasions, the civil party had learned of Fenech’s legal documents through the press.

The lawyer for the Caruana Galizia family also strongly denied the allegation that he violated the basic rights of the accused. “If we are going to talk about negative publicity for the accused, let’s just mention that it was two of the accused’s own lawyers who generated a lot of negative publicity on the accused when a few months ago they were surprised in trying to bribe a Times. from the Maltese journalist.

Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca, who represent Fenech, are themselves the subject of ongoing criminal proceedings before the Court of First Instance in this regard.

Azzopardi also told the court that he had personally seen a document in the records of the case against Fenech, which contained “several dozen messages / chats between the accused and third parties, including politicians from both political parties ( mainly from the government side) and well-known businessmen in 2019 who showed the unbridled hatred that the accused bears towards [Azzopardi] quite simply because he was one of the rare deputies… to have strongly criticized the corruption of the Electrogas project… ”

One of the communications reportedly told a PN official that Azzopardi should be eliminated after MEPs elections in May 2019 – Azzopardi claimed – saying Fenech was trying to do what he did not do in 2019 , “Fabricating a lie in a legal act that the protester influenced Judge Grixti in his duties.”

Azzopardi said he would hold Fenech responsible for any damages the lawyer may suffer “as a result of the lies and baseless allegations made against him.”

[ad_2]