Yorgen Fenech asks judge to censure Jason Azzopardi over interview comments

Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of procuring the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has called upon the Criminal Court to take action against lawyer Jason Azzopardi, accusing him of having breached a court order by discussing Fenech’s unsuccessful bid for a pardon, during a recent interview.

In an application filed in court this morning, lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Marion Camilleri and Charles Merceica, said that during Azzopardi’s interview with Lovin Malta, he 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.”

Azzopardi’s declarations contradicted the testimony of a witness, represented by Azzopardi’s law firm, who had “mentioned several people as having commissioned” the murder, said Fenech’s lawyers, as well as evidence which they say, indicated “at least five” other people as principals. It also ran contrary to claims made by the Degiorgio brothers, whom Azzopardi had summonsed as witnesses to support his defence in the libel case filed against Azzopardi by former minister Carmelo Abela, as well as the prosecutors in the Fenech case, who had declared to the court in April 2021 that “nobody is convinced that everyone connected to this case has been charged.”

Fenech’s lawyers condemned Azzopardi’s behaviour was “not correct and showed contempt both to how a free proceedings should be managed, as well as towards the intentions of the Court,” accusing Azzopardi of prejudicing the presumption of their client’s innocence. The lawyers suggested that Azzopardi might be “protecting someone” by his “categorical exclusion” of other masterminds. 

The lawyers requested the court to "take the necessary action to bring an end to this antagonistic behaviour towards the correct administration of justice."