PN MP Jason Azzopardi stands by his claims against Opposition Leader Adrian Delia after he filed a judicial protest on Friday.
Delia has filed a judicial protest against one of his own MPs - Jason Azzopardi - stating that Azzopardi was spreading "defamatory and false" claims related to alleged communication with Yorgen Fenech via SMS.
One of the text messages presented which Delia complained about reads: 'Of course it is! And you have no idea of the hundreds of other messages in the mobile of Fenech in 2019 relating to the payment to Delia of €50,000 and pledge of €100,000 or more if Casa was not elected. You have NO idea what I've been holding up inside me since January. Know once and for all that the man is a pathological liar."
On Saturday, Azzopardi filed the counter-protest in response to Adrian Delia's protest against him, signed by lawyers Stephen Thake and Kris Busietta.
The counter-protest argues that "Delia is trying to hide the political effects of the choices he has made behind words of legalistic joy, and that he kept close to him people whom he should have kept away from behind the backs of people who trusted him."
"No judicial protest will change the forensically confirmed fact that Delia secretly communicated with Yorgen Fenech after it had become publicly known that Fenech was the owner of 17 Black (i.e. after 9 November 2018)."
Azzopardi said that Delia had also met Fenech for a meal during the same period, thus after the revelations.
He added that "Delia's actions and decisions after the 9 November 2018 weakened the criticism and actions of Azzopardi, other Members of Parliament and civil society, who all strongly attacked government corruption."
Azzopardi stated that he stands by his claims and has nothing to withdraw from in terms of what he wrote and said, "because what he wrote and said is the truth and has been confirmed by the same evidence that is preserved, extracted and which has been analyzed by the competent authorities."
"It is interesting how Delia chose to file his judicial protest on the eve of a very crucial and sensitive vote within the Nationalist Party, when he already had the information for a long period of time," Azzopardi stated.
He argued that "when Delia will suffer the consequences of the evidence that will publicly come out regarding his communication and other meetings with Yorgen Fenech, he does not care whether he will bring the whole party down with him."
On the other hand, Azzopardi said, that "he will do his utmost to stop this from happening and to uncover the truth before it is too late."
Azzopardi highlighted that "nowhere in his judicial protest did Delia say that what was alleged was not true. If he were truly innocent, he would deny it and say it is untrue, but he never did. Had he not have been part of the conspiracy to stop David Casa from being elected to the European Parliament in May 2019, Delia would have himself asked to testify before the investigating Magistrate in order to state the facts, but strangely enough he has not done this."