Updated 5.45pm

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Yorgen Fenech's wife Marlene on Friday both denied claims that they had met at the minister's house in February. 

Nationalist Party MP and lawyer Jason Azzopardi had claimed that Marlene Fenech, visited "family friends" at the minister's house on February 25.

Azzopardi alleged that she was there for just under one hour, between 7.30am and 8.27am.  

"It is in our interest to know why she went to the Justice Minister's family home at a time when court proceedings and developments in Malta and France were ongoing," Azzopardi said on Facebook.

Yorgen Fenech stands accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. He is pleading not guilty and has been in police custody since he was charged last December. 

Earlier this week Times of Malta revealed that Zammit Lewis and Fenech exchanged hundreds of messages in 2019. The two men would chat regularly over messaging app WhatsApp, with some 700 messages exchanged between January and October of that year.

Fenech says she visited a doctor

Zammit Lewis was the first to deny the alleged meeting every happened, saying he did so "categorically".

"Azzopardi's allegation is totally false, and joins a series of false statements that we are used to by now," the minister said.  

Fenech soon followed. In a statement issued through her lawyers, she said Azzopardi's statement was "an outright lie and an invasion of privacy".

She said she was in Lija for a medical appointment that day, and accused Azzopardi, who made the allegation, of doing so to try and advance his own agenda and score "cheap political points". 

"It should be highlighted that perhaps Azzopardi’s fertile imagination would be better placed to ensure that the Rule of Law is defended, the presumption of innocence is protected and a fair trial is safeguarded rather than reducing himself to immature social media posts fuelled by misinformation and madness," Fenech said. 

Last July, Zammit Lewis had told Times of Malta that he had "no relationship" with murder suspect and former business tycoon Fenech, adding that the two had been introduced during his time as tourism minister. 

It is the second time in one day that Azzopardi's Facebook posts have made headlines. Earlier on Friday, Times of Malta reported that Fenech's lawyers had started legal proceedings against the PN MP, who also serves as the Caruana Galizia family's lawyer, over Facebook posts he published.