Jason Azzopardi has withdrawn all his allegations about cabinet secretary Ryan Spagnol and apologised to him in writing.

The apology and retraction, presented to court on Wednesday, brought libel proceedings which Spagnol had filed against the lawyer and the former MP to a halt.

Spagnol had sued Azzopardi in July 2024 following a flurry of Facebook posts in which Azzopardi accused Spagnol of seeking bribes in exchange for securing residence permits as part of a ID card racket at state agency Identita’.

Azzopardi had responded to the libel suit by warning Spagnol that he had now opened a “Pandora’s Box”.

But the case ended before it began.

In a court hearing on Wednesday, Azzopardi presented a letter in which he stated that he was withdrawing all his allegations about Spagnol “in full and without reservations”.

Azzopardi said he had no intention of damaging Spagnol’s reputation and had mistakenly confused Spagnol with someone “with a similar name”.

Azzopardi added that Spagnol did not feature in a legal request he filed for a magisterial inquiry into the alleged ID cards racket.

In that application, he said, he had specified that Spagnol was not one of the people suspected of criminal acts. Azzopardi said the person he confused him with was a “high-ranking public official” who he has identified under oath to the inquiring magistrate.

“I apologise to Ryan Spagnol for any damage I may have caused him and wish him all the best in his career,” Azzopardi concluded.

Spagnol was represented in the case by lawyer Chris Cilia.