PN MP Jason Azzopardi has asked Standards Commissioner George Hyzler to investigate his stay in a Tel Aviv hotel, which was paid for by a Tumas Group businessman.

Azzopardi had admitted in a Facebook post that a stay in a hotel in Tel Aviv back in 2017 was paid for by a Tumas Group businessman, but denied having feeling any obligation towards him, arguing that he had found his hotel was paid for upon checkout and that he bought the businessman a gift as repayment in order not to owe him anything.

Azzopardi was reacting to an article that appeared in the Illum on Sunday, which read that the PN MP spent five days, between the 19 and 24 of July 2017 in a hotel in Tel Aviv, with everything having been paid for.

The newsroom reported that on the TVM programme Xtra, Azzopardi said that as far as he knew, he had taken nothing from the Tumas Group and emphasised that there was a difference between what happened before November 2018 and after the 17 Black story broke, that Yorgen Fenech was its owner.

He then later told Illum that Yorgen Fenech never gave him anything and that he never asked anything of Yorgen Fenech. He did say that he had asked Ray Fenech, however, to help him find a hotel in Tel Aviv as he had a wedding there, but said that the businessman paying for his stay was surprising and unexpected, adding that he repaid Fenech with a gift, thus has no obligations towards him.

Azzopardi posted the following on Facebook.

He said that in July 2017 he had spoken to Ray Fenech, who he says he knew, and "I asked him if he can help me find a hotel in Tel Aviv as I couldn't find a place anywhere and I had to attend a wedding there."

Azzopardi said: "He found me one and it was only when I was checking out that the receptionist told me that it had been taken care of. It was surprising as when I had checked in my credit card was taken for its details, as is always done. I called or messaged him and told him that I didn't expect this."

Azzopardi said that he told him when he would arrive back in Malta he would thank him.

"I remember that as I arrived, I bought him a gift from a silver shop and I went to his reception at Portomaso (I never entered further however) and I left it at reception with a thank you note so that I would not feel any obligation towards him." He said that it is so obvious that he does not feel that he has an obligation towards the businessman due to his work against Yorgen Fenech.

Contacted by this newsroom and asked about his answer on Xtra, that he did not remember, and then giving such a detailed explanation now, Azzopardi said that on the TV programme he was asked something out of the blue in the final minutes of the programme, at a tangent from the subject. “I was not knowledgeable or prepared”. He reiterated that he never took anything from Yorgen Fenech, and said that it is for sure that "nobody can accuse me of having had my mouth kept shut, as it is known that I am quite vociferous when it comes to the fight against corruption and against Yorgen Fenech. Nobody can keep me silent."

He said that when he read the story on Sunday, which he had no inkling about, he remembered. "When I was on Xtra he didn't ask me about Tel Aviv. When I read the story I remembered and had time to collect my thoughts. I remembered that when I arrived they took my card and when I came to check out they told me it had been taken care of."

He repeated the contents of his Facebook post regarding the events. "I bought him a gift which was commensurate with the amount that it was so that I would not have any obligations towards him. I left it at the receptionist in Portomaso."

Azzopardi said that if this happened after November 2018 then he should be criticised for it. He said that at the beginning of December Europol are coming to testify and they will reveal certain things, and some people in Parliament will not be pleased with what comes out. "So they are trying to taint as much as possible so that their dirt looks less bad."

Told that the argument is that no politician should accept a gift like that from a businessman, he asked, "I was abroad, what would you do in that situation? I arrived, I gave them my credit card. I went to checkout and they told me it was taken care of. What do you do? The first thing I did, which I thought was the best thing to do, was that I bought the gift not to have any obligations."

He said he couldn't have paid the hotel at reception as in the system he was told it was already taken care of. "What could I have done?"