Cabinet member named in Vince Muscat pardon request – Jason Azzopardi

A Cabinet member has been named by one of the three men who are accused of assassinating Daphne Caruana Galizia as having a connection with a crime that was committed some years ago, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said this morning.

Azzopardi, who serves as one of the lawyers for the Caruana Galizia family, said that this minister, “who is not a lawyer”, has been named by Vince Muscat, known as ‘il-Koħħu’, in his request for a presidential pardon.

The crime in question, Azzopardi said, took place before Caruana Galizia’s assassination. Azzopardi would not go into more details about the crime, but he said that Prime Minister Robert Abela has known about this since March.

Interviewed by Andrew Azzopardi on RTK 103, Jason Azzopardi said that we have a situation when criminals became politicians and politicians became criminals.

He said that Abela should not take part in an eventual and possible discussion in Cabinet about a request for a presidential pardon by Vince Muscat, after it was revealed that Abela served as the lawyer of men who were identified as part of the conspiracy that supplied the bomb to kill Caruana Galizia.

But he should not be the only one to recuse himself when the discussion takes place, Azzopardi said, without mentioning the name of the Cabinet member listed in the presidential pardon request.

Azzopardi said that he believes that the Caruana Galizia family should be consulted about Vince Muscat’s request. He did, however, ask whether it is just for more than one pardon to be given on the same case. Melvin Theuma, the middlemen in the Caruana Galizia murder, has already been granted a pardon to reveal all information in his possession.

Azzopardi said that Abela also knows that during 2019 – and after it was revealed that Yorgen Fenech was the owner of 17 Black – at least two members of his Cabinet kept exchanging messages with him before Fenech was eventually arrested in November and later charged with being a mastermind in the assassination of the journalist.

One Cabinet member exchanged 2,000 messages and another more than 800, Azzopardi said, without revealing the content. This is not acceptable, he added.

He said that there are strong indications that Caruana Galizia was killed because of what she was to reveal about the Electrogas deal. Yorgen Fenech was a shareholder of GEM Holdings, which owns one-third of the Electrogas power station venture.

Azzopardi said he is convinced that the Keith Schembri bubble will not burst into nothing. The former chief of staff to thenPrime Minister Joseph Muscat is being investigated on alleged money laundering activities. Azzopardi said that Schembri had done all he could for Yorgen Fenech not to be caught. The question is: Did Joseph Muscat know what was happening, Azzopardi asked.

He said that the culture of impunity that was harboured by Joseph Muscat led to the assassination of Caruana Galizia. The journalist was demonised and dehumanised by Labour exponents.

Asked about his position in the Nationalist Party, Azzopardi said that he noticed more enthusiasm in the last four weeks since Bernard Grech became leader. The number of members has increased by 800, he said. There were times when polls showed that the Labour Party had a 90,000 advantage over the PN; but this has already been whittled down to the 2017 election gap, which was 40,000.

He said that there is serenity within the PN group, and rejected the idea that Therese Comodini Cachia was short-changed. Comodini Cachia was named as a potential Opposition Leader when a group of rebel MPs wanted to oust their leader Adrian Delia. Eventually, the rebel group ended up supporting Bernard Grech for the leadership race.

“I have nothing against Delia,” Azzopardi said. But the party can now look forward to a brighter future, he said.