A magistrate leading proceedings in the libel suit instituted by Minister Carmelo Abela against PN MP Jason Azzopardi has been told that the parties have no interest in mediation.
Azzopardi claimed that the minister was an accomplice in a failed bank heist.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello was informed by Abela’s lawyer, Pawlu Lia, that there will be no mediation and the allegations will be contested.
The sitting was deferred because Azzopardi’s lawyer, Joe Zammit Maempel, could not make it for personal reasons.
Azzopardi had said in a Facebook post that Abela was promised €300,000 to provide footage and access cards for criminals to be able to carry out a heist on HSBC Bank headquarters in 2010. Abela has denied the claims.
At the time, he was an HSBC employee.
Claims that a “sitting minister” was an accomplice in the heist were first made by Vince Muscat and Alfred Degiorgio – the hitmen accused of the the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Azzopardi mentioned the minister's name in a Facebook post, to which Abela replied with an urgent libel suit.
The case continues next month.