Former Nationalist general secretary Clyde Puli yesterday said he is unaware of any alleged illicit communication between the ex-boss of the party’s media arm and murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.
Portelli, who was appointed as executive chairman of the PN’s media wing by former opposition leader Adrian Delia in 2017, resigned from the party’s administration after a meeting with Bernard Grech on Friday.
It came after Lovin Malta reported that Portelli had reached out to Fenech to help resolve the salary problems within the PN when he served as the party’s head of media.
That was in 2019, when Fenech had been outed as the owner of 17 Black, the company that leaked emails indicated was designed to funnel kickbacks into offshore structures set up for Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.
Months later, Fenech would be arrested and charged over the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Contacted on Saturday, Puli, now shadow minister for education, employment and social dialogue, praised Portelli’s tenure as head of the PN’s media.
“Pierre played a crucial role in the party’s drive to change Media.link from a company that was facing debt problems into one that operated sustainably, and he always did his work diligently.
“I imagine that they [Portelli and Fenech] might have communicated at some point given their former positions as head of a media company and head of a business group, but that’s all I would know,” Puli said.
According to the report, in January 2019, Portelli had also asked Fenech to push l-Orizzont to publish a story about ‘a plot’ to remove Adrian Delia and replace him with Chris Said as party leader. Both Puli and former party leader Adrian Delia have denied knowing anything about the WhatsApp conversations or the matters discussed privately between Portelli and Fenech.
In his resignation letter, Portelli said he had already hinted at his departure from the PN’s executive committee by being absent from any recent executive meetings.
Delia denial
Contacted on Saturday, Delia denied “having any information at all” about the matter.
Referring to Portelli’s letter, Delia said he could understand why Portelli had taken his decision since he had been out of the scene for a while.
Clyde Puli and Adrian Delia. Both men said they know nothing of Portelli's alleged communication with Fenech.“Given that Portelli’s resignation is also steeped in his desire to speak about the matter at the appropriate time, it would hardly be decent of me to speculate on matters I am not privy to,” Delia added.
Delia, who continues to serve as MP for the party, also rejected suggestions that he is the subject of a magisterial inquiry into bribery allegations made against himself and Portelli.
“To date, I have never even been summoned by the police about anything. I would therefore appreciate if this untruth stops being perpetrated.”
Puli and Portelli were among a handful of Delia loyalist supporters when MPs put pressure on their leader to step down, amid poor polling and suspicions of wrongdoing.
Portelli had resigned from his position with Media.link shortly after a chaotic party meeting in June 2019.
Melvin Theuma, the middleman who brokered Caruana Galizia’s assassination, claimed that Fenech had offered €50,000 to Delia to derail the MEP re-election efforts of David Casa, who had repeatedly drawn attention to Fenech’s ownership of 17 Black.
In separate testimony, Keith Schembri had also stated that Portelli was taking up to €20,000 a month from Fenech on behalf of the PN. Both Portelli and Delia deny the claims.