PN MP Jason Azzopardi suspends himself from Parliamentary Group

On Monday, PN MP Jason Azzopardi suspended himself from the party’s parliamentary group and shadow cabinet.

In a statement, the PN said that after discussions with party leader Bernard Grech, Azzopardi informed Grech of his decision to ask the Party’s Ethics, Discipline and Social Media Commission to investigate him in connection with a story published by the media on Sunday.

The story in question is over a hotel-stay at a Hilton hotel in TelAviv, Israel in March 2017, which was paid for by a businessman from Tumas Group – the same group which Yorgen Fenech was a director of.

Azzopardi had previously asked the Standards Commissioner to investigate the stay and denied that he felt any obligation towards the businessman as a result of it. He argued that he had found his hotel was already paid for upon checkout and not before, and that he had bought the businessman a gift as repayment in order not to owe him anything.

Azzopardi is representing the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia as parte civile in the court proceedings against Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of masterminding the murder of the journalist, which took place in October 2017.

In a statement, the PN said that Azzopardi had agreed to suspend himself from the party’s parliamentary group and shadow cabinet until the internal investigation is concluded.

Earlier in the day prior to this announcement, the PL had taken aim at Opposition Leader

Bernard Grech for his lack of action against Azzopardi. Minister Owen Bonnici had said that Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech was too weak when it comes to dealing with Jason Azzopardi, and went on to describe Azzopardi as an “albatross around Grech’s head.”

Addressing a press conference, Bonnici said that Grech had his hands tied against Azzopardi, who was part of the clique which first worked to oust Adrian Delia from the PN leadership and later supported Grech for the post.