Judge deems Jason Azzopardi comments prejudicial to Yorgen Fenech, orders Lovin to edit interview
Judge Edwina Grima rules that comments made by Jason Azzopardi about Yorgen Fenech’s guilt in an interview with Lovin Malta could interfere with the administration of justice
A judge has ordered Lovin Malta to edit an interview with lawyer Jason Azzopardi after he claimed Yorgen Fenech alone commissioned Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.
After hearing the interview, Judge Edwina Grima, presiding over the Criminal Court, ordered the news portal to remove the section of the interview in which Azzopardi discussed Fenech. The judge also ordered Azzopardi to remove the interview from his Facebook page.
In her ruling, Grima said the comments made by Azzopardi on Fenech’s guilt or otherwise could interfere with the administration of justice. She added that the comments could also influence the judgement exercised by jurors that still have to be selected for the trial.
The ruling was delivered following a court application filed by Fenech in the wake of comments Azzopardi made during the Lovin Malta interview that was published recently.
Fenech is awaiting trial over accusations that he procured the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017.
In his application, Fenech asked the Criminal Court to take action against Azzopardi, accusing him of having breached a court order by discussing Fenech’s unsuccessful bid for a pardon.
Fenech’s lawyers, Gianluca Caruana Curran, Marion Camilleri and Charles Merceica, argued that during the interview with Lovin Malta, Azzopardi had committed a “flagrant breach” of a court order, by speaking about a Fenech’s pardon request and by telling the interviewer that “the evidence that was legally collected, point towards Yorgen Fenech alone as being the person who commissioned the murder”.
Apart from ordering the interview to be edited, the judge asked that the Attorney General and Azzopardi be notified so that they could make written submissions. The judge is expected to hear oral submissions from the parties on 5 September when she could take further steps should it be necessary.
Azzopardi is the lawyer of the Caruana Galizia family.
Three men – Vince Muscat, George Degiorgio and Alfred Degiorgio – have already been sentenced to prison after admitting that they carried out the murder. Another two – Robert Agius and Jamie Vella – are facing charges for having supplied the bomb that was placed inside Caruana Galizia’s car.
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