PM cancelled Dubai visit when tipped off about Joseph Muscat residence raid, Azzopardi tells court
Prime Minister Robert Abela had cancelled his attendance at an expo in Dubai in January 2022 and flown back to Malta after being tipped off about the police's plans to raid Joseph Muscat's house.This claim was made from the witness stand by lawy
Prime Minister Robert Abela had cancelled his attendance at an expo in Dubai in January 2022 and flown back to Malta after being tipped off about the police's plans to raid Joseph Muscat's house.
This claim was made from the witness stand by lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who was testifying in the constitutional case filed by Joseph Muscat against the State Advocate and the Attorney General, in which he is claiming breaches to a number of his fundamental human rights. Azzopardi was the lawyer who had signed, on behalf of Repubblika, the application which triggered the magisterial inquiry.
Azzopardi also strongly rejected the allegation that he had tipped off Muscat about the plans to raid his house and offices, at the order of the inquiring magistrate.
Press tipped off on Muscat raid by OPM - Jason Azzopardi
The witness went on to say that it was the press who had been unofficially tipped off by the Office of the Prime Minister.
He backed up the first claim by pointing to the fact that Abela had, in fact, returned to Malta from Strasbourg immediately that day, instead of travelling onwards to an event in Dubai as planned, he said. "This is all in the public domain," Azzopardi added.
"It was an outrageous lie for them to say that I had leaked the information about the searches in advance, because you'd have to be a simpleton to believe that... Robert Abela, the Prime Minister, lied to the public to incite anger against me," said the witness. "I know that Robert Abela was aware and was made aware in advance of the date that Muscat's house would be searched. A person had come to speak to me at my office, very worried, because the Commissioner of Police had told him so."
"I did not tell anyone about this, not even Repubblika or [Robert] Aquilina. I contacted [the court expert] because I did not have any means through which to contact the magistrate. I never spoke to her, for obvious reasons. But such a leak could not be allowed," he said.
Vince Galea interrupted, telling the court that the witness was supposed to answer questions. "What is he doing then?" replied the judge, initially overruling Galea's objection.
But when Azzopardi asked the court for permission to exhibit a news story published in January 2022, the lawyer interrupted again, arguing that a witness could not exhibit documents at the stage when the plaintiff was still asking him questions.
The judge upheld that objection and told Azzopardi not to exhibit them for now.
Asked by Galea as to how he knew the identity of the expert involved, the witness replied that after 30 years working in court it was reasonable to know who formed part of the small pool of court experts.
"We were in the middle of a sitting of the compilation of evidence against the Degiorgio brothers for the murder of Daphne Caurana Galzia. They had called the expert to testify but he was not available and the court was told that he was unable to attend because he was engaged in another inquiry, that relating to the hospitals deal," Azzopardi replied.
When probed about the possibility of him having communicated with the expert before then, Azzopardi replied that "as far as this inquiry is concerned, it was the first time," that he had spoken to him.
Gouder asked the lawyer whether he had seen the inquiry before it was published by MaltaToday. "Absolutely not," was Azzopardi's categorical reply. "I never had visibility of it until the inquiry was made public by the press."
"But I am led to believe that the OPM had been given access to the inquiry which had been passed on to it by the Attorney General... I was not privy to it," he added.
He said a person employed at the OPM told him the Prime Minister had received a copy of the inquiry and this fact had also been made public by the Opposition.
"My point is that the OPM should never have had a copy of this inquiry. Never."
Azzopardi rubbished the suggestion of impropriety on the part of magistrate Gabriella Vella. "Every lawyer who works here who knows the integrity and professionalism of the magistrate in question, I was confident that [the inquiry] would be carried out correctly."
Lawyer Vince Galea, who is assisting Muscat together with lawyer Charlon Gouder, pointed out that the individuals which Repubblika had indicated in their application were Chris Cardona, Edward Scicluna and Konrad Mizzi. "Joseph Muscat was not indicated," said the lawyer.
Once started, magisterial inquiries take on a life of their own, casting a wide net, replied the witness. "When filing an application for an inquiry you must have information that satisfies the requirements emerging from the law. At the time, there was information which had been published by Daphne Caruana Galizia, as well as The Shift News and the Times of Malta, which could reassure the court that there were sufficient grounds to justify an inquiry."
Azzopardi said that he had based the court application on news articles and investigative pieces which had been published in the months leading up to the application being filed. "Everything that, in my opinion, any magistrate worth his or her salt would want to know, I included," he said.
Azzopardi did not know identities of Vitals inquiry experts
In reply to a question from Muscat's lawyers, the witness said that he had not known the names or identities of the experts who had assisted in the inquiry and neither had he spoken to the inquiring magistrate's staff. When he needed to correspond with the inquiry, he would do so in writing through the deputy he said.
"Did you speak to the police?" asked Galea. "I would not speak to the police and I didn't need to because the inquiry belongs to the magistrate, not the police," shot back Azzopardi.
Gouder asked Azzopardi about several cryptic Facebook posts which the Repubblika lawyer had published in April 2022, March, May, October 2023 and January and May 2024.
"Thanks to investigative journalists at the Times, The Shift News and MaltaToday, and also foreign newspapers, new details were emerging... I used my right to freedom of expression and drew my conclusions from them," Jason Azzopardi replied. "I am not infallible, but to say that I knowingly or through malice, published something which I knew not to be false, is not true "
Gouder asked the lawyer about one particular post of his, published on 16 March 2023, which he said, appeared to indicate that Azzopardi was privy to certain aspects of the inquiry.
"It would be reckless of me to say that I remember what was in my mind at the time [but]... I was morally convinced that the inquiry had sufficient reasons... to find wrongdoing.
Gouder repeated his question about why four years after filing the application, Azzopardi had also started to mention Joseph Muscat in connection with the inquiry.
"You are correct to point this out," Azzopardi replied. "The reason is very simple: The post is from May 2023. In early November 2021... Robert Aquilina had held a press conference outside the Police HQ to announce that, on behalf of Repubblika, I had filed a report to the inquiring magistrate following a story carried by the Times of Malta about the consultancy fees - around €60,000 - which Joseph Muscat had received from Spring X Media and Accutor.
When asked by Muscat's lawyers as to why he had not gone to the inquiring magistrate on that occasion, Azzopardi explained that he had filed notes in the inquiry in his personal capacity, as well as filing the report on behalf of his client and repeated that he had not been exempted from professional secrecy.
When probed about his apparent knowledge of an NAO report about the hospitals concession, prior to its publication, Azzopardi pointed to his 25 year career in Parliament, explaining that he still had long-standing relationships with people there.
"You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that the biggest fraud in this country's history could not be carried out by just four people," Azzopardi said in reply to a question from Gouder about his mention of 'others' as also potentially facing charges before the inquiry was concluded. "It was such a massive fraud that even people outside the country were involved."
Gouder also showed Azzopardi a press release by the NAO about part 3 of the report on the VGH concession, published in April 2023.
"The probability is that when I said talk to me next month is that although I was no longer an MP... after just under 25 years in parliament, I would have known there are a number of reports in the pipeline. This information would have been provided to me by trusted individuals working in parliament. What is important
Azzopardi refuses to reveal sources
Azzopardi refused to comply with Gouder's request to identify the individuals who had spoken to him. He explained that sometimes he would receive information volunteered by persons occupying State and official positions in his capacity as a lawyer, and was bound by professional secrecy towards them.
The judge decreed that professional secrecy should be given a wide interpretation and was not necessarily limited to the case which it had been disclosed for. "Besides, the emphasis of the law is on the client's consent. A lawyer bound by professional secrecy cannot even reveal whether or not a person is his client," said the judge. "For this reason, it remains in the witness' discretion to decide whether he is bound by professional secrecy and not reply to the questions."
The court asked Azzopardi whether he wished to reply. He declined.
Cross-examined briefly by State Advocate lawyer James D'Agostino, Azzopardi denied having any direct communication with magistrate Gabriella Vella, or the Prime MInister for that matter, and confirmed that he had based his assertions on information that had been provided to him by others.
The case continues.
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