Yorgen Fenech wanted to "eliminate" Jason Azzopardi after the 2019 MEP election, the lawyer and PN politician has claimed in court documents.
"Start off with Jason Azzopardi [Ibda b'Jason Azzopardi]", read a text from the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder accused to a PN official allegedly sent on the day after the poll.
It was revealed by the PN MP and lawyer for the Caruana Galizia family in a counter protest hitting back at allegations from Fenech's lawyers that he tried to influence a judge's decision on bail.
Azzopardi claimed he had long been a target by Fenech for speaking out against the Electrogas powerstation project that was the businessman's brainchild and linked to alleged corruption.
He said in the judicial protest that Fenech's texts showed he had been his prime target and wanted him "eliminated" after the MEP election.
Data extracted from Fenech’s mobile phone revealed “tens” of messages exchanged between the businessman and politicians on both sides of parliament, as well as chats with other prominent players within the business sector, said Azzopardi.
Those chats revealed all throughout 2019, Fenech’s “ruthless hatred” towards the PN MP simply because Azzopardi had been one of few politicians who spoke out against the power station project, he claimed.
This was after Fenech was outed as the owner of the secret company 17 Black and the businessman’s insults were primarily directed against Azzopardi, even urging a party official to get rid of the MP, right after the 2019 elections.
Email to chief justice
Having failed, he said Fenech was trying to achieve his aim by fabricating lies in a judicial document and saying that Azzopardi had sought to influence Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti in his decision on Fenech’s bail request.
“God forbid,” stated Azzopardi, categorically denying the “lie” and holding Fenech responsible in damages.
He also forcefully denied the alleged concerted and systematic attack, stressing that he had never “coordinated anything” with blogger Manuel Delia about this case.
And to dispel Fenech’s allegations and prove that he had acted in good faith, Azzopardi reproduced the full text of the email he had addressed to Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti on August 19, pending delivery of the bail decree.
Judge Giovanni Grixti purchased a yacht (inset) from Yorgen Fenech's father in 2008.He had informed the Chief Justice about the purchase of a 50-foot boat by the former magistrate Grixti from the accused’s father, the late George Fenech.
Moreover sources had informed Azzopardi that up to 2012 the then magistrate regularly met Yorgen’s uncle, Ninu Fenech, at the Easysell showroom at Qormi, sharing a coffee and chats, Azzopardi wrote in his email.
Grixti was a friend of the Fenech family and “he should never have presided over yesterday’s bail hearing,” Azzopardi told the Chief Justice.
He said that Fenech’s lawyers had filed the bail application on the day when Grixti was duty judge and a hearing was scheduled well before the Attorney General had filed his reply within the 24 hour time limit granted by the judge.
The records of the murder compilation were also at the magistrate’s court presiding over the case and so Grixti, presiding over the Criminal Court, lacked competence to hear bail submissions, Azzopardi added.
He denied that he had breached Fenech’s fundamental rights, pointing out that two of the defence lawyers had generated negative publicity by allegedly trying to bribe a Times of Malta journalist to seek favourable reporting pending criminal proceedings.
Azzopardi said he had always “suffered in silence," never reacting to the “hundreds of systematic and untruthful attacks” against him and his family. He claimed he was targeted in a social media campaign generated by Fenech and his “mercenaries.”
Above all, he remained loyal towards the courts, Azzopardi declared.