Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi on Tuesday testified about a regular stream of anonymous letters he received in recent years, which were penned in distinctive handwriting using graphic language by someone making "an extra effort to make sure that they inflicted the maximum amount of hurt."

Azzopardi was testifying in proceedings against 71-year old Valletta resident Joseph Mary Borg, who was arraigned last Wednesday over numerous threatening letters he allegedly sent to public figures.

“Here’s another holy picture [santa],” Azzopardi would say to himself every time he came across one of the envelopes addressed to him in the now-familiar handwriting.

Azzopardi testified how, since 2014, he would get a letter every two or three months.

'Burst condom'

The letters were replete with foul and offensive language, including ‘p’, ‘l’ and ‘k’ words in Maltese and expressions such as “a burst condom” (kondom mifqugħ), Azzopardi said.

Worse still was the writer’s reference to “the bones” of Azzopardi’s late mother.

The words in those letters were “graphic” and it was evident that whoever wrote them “made an extra effort to inflict the maximum amount of hurt,” Azzopardi said.

He added that in all his public life he had never come across such “venom.”

“It didn’t make me angry but very, very hurt and, yes, I felt that my life was threatened,” Azzopardi said.

The letters, he added, clearly showed that someone was following his footsteps and researching his family history.

For instance, the writer knew that Azzopardi’s late father had died a few years ago, was a former dockyard worker and a footballer who shunned politics.

The letters had also targeted his mother, who died in her early forties when Azzopardi was still in his teens.

“I think my parents’ grave must be shaking,” Azzopardi would comment whenever a new letter was delivered to him in Parliament.

MP’s partner also received letters

Other letters addressed to Azzopardi’s partner, Flavia Borg Bonaci, followed suit.

When three such letters were delivered to the couple’s Sliema home, Azzopardi’s partner was “immensely disturbed,” he said, recalling how he had immediately recognized the handwriting when the first letter arrived.

"She was very, very much afraid and even psychologically disturbed. She didn’t even want to leave the house.”

The last of those letters had been sent to their home within the last six months.

Although he convinced her to throw out the first two letters, she had retained the third which she subsequently showed to the police.

Other MPs also in the writer's crosshairs

“I knew I wasn’t alone,” said Azzopardi, adding that fellow MPs including Beppe Fenech Adami had also received similar letters in identical handwriting.

“It is immediately noticeable that the calligraphy is the same,” he said, highlighting the distinctive letter ‘a’ identical to that seen in similar letters sent to Repubblika president Robert Aquilina and Kristina Chetcuti, former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s partner.

One of those letters had accused Fenech Adami and Azzopardi of criminal offences, he said.

A common thread throughout the letters was criticism of Azzopardi as Caruana Galizia family lawyer as well as a supporter of Repubblika’s lobbying for rule of law reforms and against corruption.

The letters also reserved “words of hatred” against the Caruana Galizia family, often sparked by Azzopardi’s own public criticism of former minister Konrad Mizzi and former prime minister Joseph Muscat, he said.

The accused, a total stranger to Azzopardi, had evidently “soaked up the propaganda” generated by Labour Party online trolls, he added.

“The number of lies running throughout these letters was staggering.”

Asked by presiding Magistrate Astrid May Grima whether the letters presented specific threats, Azzopardi said that although there was no explicit threat like “I’ll kill you” or “I will blow you up,” when taken as a whole it was obvious that someone was tracing his footsteps.

“Yes of course I felt threatened,” he said.

Azzopardi disposed of letters

Azzopardi said he had disposed of the letters on the back of advice given to him by the late Labour minister Lino Spiteri, a friend.

“Spiteri had advised me, ‘never keep anonymous letters that you will receive in public life,’” he said.

“I would be honouring the sender by keeping such filth."

As Tuesday’s hearing reached an end, the court turned down a fresh request for bail after hearing submissions by both parties.

Prosecuting Inspector Kevin Pulis pointed out that the position of the prosecution had not changed since last week’s arraignment.

An “enormous” number of civilian witnesses still have to testify, the inspector added.

Documentary evidence had been preserved by police during their searches but that did not mean that all evidence had been gathered.

The prosecution’s greatest fear was that of tampering with evidence, besides the fact that the accused evidently knew his victims’ home addresses.

"Had he sent those letters to Parliament perhaps matters would have been different."

Defence lawyers Joseph Calleja and Henry Antoncich said that Borg had fully cooperated, adding that the court could impose adequate conditions to allay the prosecution’s fear of tampering.

In view of the number of witnesses yet to testify, the court denied the accused bail.

Another hearing will be held next week for more civilian witnesses to be summoned.

Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia appeared parte civile on behalf of all victims.