Jason Azzopardi has dismissed claims that he leaked information from the Vitals inquiry as an “outrageous lie”, in court testimony while facing questions from Joseph Muscat’s lawyers.
Azzopardi confirmed that he had learnt of the search ahead of time, after a person spoke to him and told him, with concern, that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa had implied police were about to pounce on Muscat.
But the lawyer and former MP said he had never revealed that to anyone and never spoken to the inquiring magistrate about the probe. Instead, the lawyer and former MP turned the tables on Muscat and his successor, Robert Abela, saying they both knew about the search ahead of time.
Abela had even changed his travel plans to ensure he was in Malta on the day, he said.
And later in his testimony, Azzopardi said Abela’s office had also obtained a copy of the Vitals inquiry despite it not being entitled to one – something he got to know through a source at the Office of the Prime Minister.
Azzopardi was testifying on Wednesday in constitutional proceedings wherein Muscat is claiming that his fundamental rights were breached by having Magistrate Gabriella Vella leading the inquiry into the now-annulled hospitals’ privatization deal.
“I was shocked”
Summoned by Muscat’s lawyers, Azzopardi testified at length, answering a series of rapid-fire questions concerning his connection to the inquiry and multiple comments posted on his Facebook page.
In a post published on January 16, 2022, Azzopardi had written that it was no wonder Robert Abela had objected to his proposal calling for inquiring magistrates to have their own staff.
“You’ll soon understand why,” Azzopardi had posted.
Muscat’s house was searched by the police three days later.
Asked about that post on Wednesday, Azzopardi recalled how “less than a week” before the Muscat home was searched, somebody told him that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa’, when faced with a comment that “Joseph Muscat got away with it” [Joseph Muscat ghaddiha lixxa], replied, “Just you wait and see. Wait until next week and then get back to me.”
Azzopardi’s source was “greatly troubled” about the commissioner having said that, Azzopardi said.
“I was shocked. It was the first time I got to know [about the search]. I told no one, not even Robert Aquilina and Repubblika,” said Azzopardi.The Prime Minister, Robert Abela, also knew of the search plan, he alleged, and quickly changed his travel plans, which had been previously communicated to social partners.
Rather than visit Dubai on Malta Day on January 19, Abela headed back to Malta from Strasbourg after meeting EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
Azzopardi said he wanted to alert the inquiring magistrate about the leak.
He said that whenever he wanted to give the magistrate information, he did so by filing a note in the court registry without even telling Repubblika, the NGO on whose behalf he had filed the original application that triggered the inquiry.
Azzopardi stressed that he “never, directly or indirectly or even remotely indirectly” spoke to the magistrate about this or any other inquiry.
On this occasion, he could not file a note in the court registry about it, as it was a Friday. So he resolved to pass on the information by contacting one of the experts working on the inquiry, forensic IT specialist Keith Cutajar.
“I don’t recall whether he answered my call or whether I texted him to alert the magistrate…I was gripped by shock,” said Azzopardi.
A police superintendent has previously testified that Cutajar was “bombarded” with calls from Azzopardi that day. The IT expert did not answer and instead directed Azzopardi to speak directly to the magistrate.
“How did you know Keith Cutajar was one of the experts?” asked lawyer Charlon Gouder who led Wednesday’s questioning, alongside lawyer Vincent Galea.
Azzopardi said it was “common knowledge” among lawyers working in court. It was the first time he tried to contact Cutajar, he said, adding he never communicated directly with Magistrate Vella’s staff, nor with the police.
During an interview on Net TV, he had denounced the “outrageous lie” (gidba fahxija) by Abela and Muscat who alleged that he “was responsible for the leaks.”
“Today I’m testifying [about this] on oath for the first time,” Azzopardi stressed.
Asked to name his sources, Azzopardi firmly refused.
“They spoke to me as a lawyer. Some took great risks. That information will go with me to the grave,” he said, sparking some legal arguments between Muscat’s and the State Advocate’s lawyers.
After hearing those submissions during a brief suspension of Azzopardi’s testimony, Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti declared that the professional secrecy was to be interpreted widely to cover information “not necessarily limited to this case.”
Under professional secrecy a lawyer could not even reveal a client’s identity.
“I never wrote something knowing it was not true”
Azzopardi said he could not recall why, on a separate occasion, he had written “speak to me in a month’s time,” in a Facebook post.
“I must have got to know of something about which I informed the magistrate. And every note I filed, I was prepared to confirm on oath. But the magistrate never sent for me.”
“I never wrote something knowing it was not true,” he said, adding that he was not infallible but insisting he never did anything “out of malice.”
Could that “month’s time” have referred to the Auditor General’s report published a month after his post, Muscat’s lawyers asked.
Azzopardi did not exclude it, saying he might have obtained information from parliament staff who generally knew “about reports in the pipeline.”
Muscat’s lawyers also wanted to know why, in a March 2023 post, he included mention of Muscat alongside Chris Cardona, Edward Scicluna and Konrad Mizzi, the three people Repubblika had originally asked the magistrate to probe.
“Why did you mention Muscat four years after your original application?”asked Gouder.
Azzopardi said the reason was “very simple” – because Repubblika had, in November 2021, filed a criminal complaint with the police about Muscat, after The Sunday Times of Malta revealed consultancy fees he earned after his resignation as prime minister.
Spring metaphor
Azzopardi also dismissed suggestions that one of his posts which referenced “spring” was an allusion to the season. He said he used the word “metaphorically”, as a message to encourage followers not to “lose hope”, he said.
“I was morally convinced that at the end of the day, the truth would come out….I believe that the truth prevails. I was and still am morally convinced that I stand on the right side of history. Come what may, even if I’m the last man standing, I’ll continue to state this,” said Azzopardi.
“No need to be Sherlock Holmes or Poirot to realize that such a fraud was not perpetrated by three or four individuals alone….it was a complex web….there were foreigners too.”
“Spring would shed light on the forces of darkness. Hence my comment,” said Azzopardi.
The case continues.