‘I should have acted differently’ - Jason Azzopardi apologises over Tel-Aviv controversy

PN MP Jason Azzopardi has apologised for his actions regarding a hotel stay in Israel which was paid for by a prominent businessman back in 2017, saying that he should have acted differently.

Azzopardi suspended himself from the PN’s Parliamentary Group after it emerged that a Hilton Hotel stay in Tel-Aviv in March 2017 had been paid for by Ray Fenech, one of the directors of the Tumas Group – a business group which Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, was also part of.

Azzopardi has said that when he went to pay for the hotel stay, he found that it had been paid for already. In exchange for this, he bought Ray Fenech a silver gift in order to make it clear that he felt he had no obligation towards him, Azzopardi said.

However, Standards Commissioner George Hyzler stated that while he cannot investigate the case as it happened prior to the setting up of his office, a gift given by a politician to reciprocate another which he or she had received does not cancel out the original gift.

In his report, Hyzler states that the law which governs his office does not preclude him from investigating a case if this is demanded by the person involved; yet, he said he is conscious of the fact that such requests could be made for political reasons or as a publicity stunt, and he said he will not allow his office to be used in this way. Hyzler added that he will consider such requests on a case by case basis and, in this particular occasion, he cannot investigate. He said that the law precludes him from investigating anything that took place before his office was set up.

Azzopardi, in his Facebook post yesterday reacting to Hyzler’s arguments, said: “I will not beat about the bush. Nor will I try to hide behind legal arguments.”

“When the cashier of the Hilton in Tel Aviv told me on my checking out in 2017 that the room charges were already taken care from the Malta side, I should have insisted on paying the full bill and not just pay for taxes and extras.”

“At that particularly difficult moment in my private life I felt that I would have been churlish to refuse the offer made by Ray Fenech and that the buying of a silver gift for Ray Fenech would have been a clear enough sign on my part that no obligation existed. Surely he did not need any modest silverware from me, but it was my way of coming ‘ even’,” he said.

He noted Hyzler’s conclusions and thanked him for the clarification.

“Besides my impression that Fenech’s gift was ‘ balanced’ by my gift, I note that in March 2017, the Tumas Group did not have any direct interest in any legislation before Parliament. The Electrogas deal had been sealed a long time before and there were no plans for legislation that could have impacted directly the Tumas Group or its subsidiaries,” Azzopardi observed.

“During the time I spent in Cabinet, or at any point in time, ever, Ray Fenech never asked me for any favour and I am sure he was very conscious that I would not have felt in anyway indebted to him because of his gift, nor could I proffer any favours as I had been out of government for many years,” he continued.

He noted that the incident had happened in March 2017, by which point he was already one of the biggest critics of the Electrogas deal, adding that it is very clear that the gift did not move his position in any way.

“Undoubtedly I am one of the politicians who to this day vociferously condemns the corrupt Electrogas deal, and day in day out risk my life because of my constant struggle against the cabal that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia. The same cabal which assassinated her is the same one trying to kill me politically. They will fail,” he said.

“Yes, I should have acted differently back then, and I apologise for not doing so, but even my strongest critics have to concede that the Tel Aviv incident did not influence one iota the fulfilment of my duty as an MP,” he said before concluding that he will continue to fulfil his duty in Parliament.

The trip is also being investigated by the Nationalist Party’s own ethics commission, which is not limited by time- barring. Azzopardi on Monday suspended himself from the PN’s Parliamentary Group pending the internal investigation.

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech yesterday announced that he has asked PN MPs to inform him whether they had received any gifts or favours from the business community that could pose as a conflict of interest.