Pierre Portelli, who on Monday night resigned from the post of head of the Nationalist Party media, said that PN MP Karol Aquilina has so much to answer for.
Writing on Facebook, Portelli said that there will come a time when more will be revealed.
Portelli was replying to a comment made by Aquilina to journalists on Portelli’s friendship with Yorgen Fenech, who was named as the owner of a Dubai-based company 17 Black, which was linked to the two companies opened by Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri in Panama.
“What Pierre Portelli should say is that he is a friend of Yorgen Fenech,” Aquilina said, after Portelli had given his view of how PN MPs who are against Adrian Delia’s leadership, including Aquilina, had put spokes in the party’s wheels.
Replying to Aquilina’s comments, Portelli said that Aquilina has been trying to feed this “fabricated story” to several newsrooms but, “months after I gave details on my professional relationship with the Tumas Group, no newsroom was ready to publish it”.
Now that Aquilina “has been caught working against the PN” he (Aquilina) had to make it public himself “to defend the admission that he is the lawyer of Manuel Delia who writes against the PN every day and has taken legal action against NET TV”.
What Aquilina should tell journalists, Portelli added, is that when he (Aquilina) was president of the PN administrative committee “the PN was caught taking money from contractors”, and the party is until this day trying to clear its name with the Electoral Commission.
That time Aquilina did not resign and neither did his superior, Portelli said, a clear reference to former leader Simon Busuttil. Portelli said that he was the journalist who took parts of an FIAU report on 17 Black to a magistrate conducting an inquiry.
“There is much more Aquilina has to answer for. The time will come for this,” Portelli said.
In comments to the media after the parliamentary group meeting, Aquilina said Portelli had not denied his friendship with Fenech. Aquilina denied that he is a lawyer in a case against the Nationalist Party. Portelli "in his desperation" is attacking the PN and "me personally", Aquilina said.
