Former minister Carmelo Abela took the witness stand on Monday in libel proceedings he filed against former Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi over a Facebook post implying he was linked to a failed armed robbery at HSBC back in 2010.
At the time of that botched theft, Abela was a senior insurance and statistics officer at the bank, before being promoted to a managerial post, the former minister testified.
After venturing into politics, he left the bank on secondment in 2014.
“But I’m technically still on the bank’s books and still entitled to go back,” said Abela.
Turning to the crux of the libel, Abela recalled how Azzopardi’s Facebook comment posted in April last year, was flagged by a member of his staff.
That post “from the start was evidently intended to cause great damage,” said the former minister.
Days before that post, Azzopardi had hinted at a “great scandal he was about to reveal about a government minister” without revealing the identity of the minister concerned.
Azzopardi had dropped the hint during an interview with Andrew Azzopardi on a Saturday morning radio talk show hosted by the University academic.
A Sunday newspaper next took up the story and over the following days, Abela said he was chased 'by PN journalists' asking questions that ran much along the same lines.
When doorstepped on his way to his former office at Castille, he had directly confronted a journalist, asking whether questions were meant to “imply something” in his regard.
It seemed to be no longer a “fishing expedition” but a “more direct attack in my regard,” remarked Abela.
Faced with that situation, Abela said he posted a comment which in turn triggered Azzopardi’s own Facebook post.
“What did you write?” asked presiding Magistrate Rachel Montebello.
There was a reference to the “qabar ta’ Kristu” issue (when Azzopardi said he visited the tomb of Christ) and other matters in the public domain including Azzopardi’s claim that Abela had employed public workers to erect a canopy on the roof of his private residence, Abela explained.
“I had spoken about the public workers case in parliament and there was also an inquiry which concluded that no public funds had been involved,” said Abela.
“All those facts were public and I criticized Jason Azzopardi in my post on the basis of publicly known facts.”
Azzopardi reacted with his own comments on Facebook, claiming that the former minister was linked to the failed armed robbery at the bank back in 2010.
Those comments prompted Abela to file a late-night application to kickstart libel proceedings to rebut those allegations.
In a second radio interview on the Saturday morning talk show, asked about the “enormous” allegation leveled against Abela on Facebook, Azzopardi said that what he had alleged was “in the public domain.”
He then opted to hang up although offered the chance by the radio host to intervene when Abela was contacted for his own comments on the subject.
On that occasion, Abela denied the allegation as outright calumny and confirmed that he had sought urgent libel action against Azzopardi.
Abela is expected to resume his testimony when the case continues next month.
Lawyer Pawlu Lia is assisting the applicant.
Lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel is assisting the respondent.