Yorgen Fenech’s defence team has accused Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi of trying to influence a judge’s decision on whether to grant Fenech bail or not.

Fenech’s defence team alleged that Azzopardi had published content on his Facebook page – content which showed that Judge Giovanni Grixti, who was set to decree on Fenech’s latest application for bail today, had bought a boat from Fenech’s father – in an attempt to influence the judge’s decision and to try to “play to the gallery.” 

The defence team was referring to Azzopardi flagging to the Chief Justice the fact that Judge Grixti had purchased a boat from Fenech’s father. 

The information emerged as the country waited for a decree from Grixti on the latest bail application on whether Fenech, who yesterday was served with a bill of indictment accusing him of complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, should be granted bail. 

Fenech was in fact not granted bail on Thursday afternoon.

In a letter to the Chief Justice, the defence team said that Azzopardi knew full well that there are specific reasons as to why judges can be recused or abstain from hearing a case which are established by law, and that there are legal facilities and procedures which one must follow when a party asks for the recusal of a judge. 

They said that the fact that the judge in question “may” have bought a 20-year-old second hand boat from the father of the accused is not one of the reasons for recusal as established by the law. 

“The fact that somebody buys something from someone does not mean that the person was in business with the seller, and neither does it mean that they have any obligation towards them”, the letter continues. 

“Maybe it’s here that Azzopardi is measuring by his own yardstick in thinking or implying that anyone who bought something or obtained some service from the Fenech family had, like he did, acquired it for free”, they added – a reference to a now infamous hotel trip in Israel which Azzopardi had been paid for by Ray Fenech (Yorgen Fenech’s uncle). 

The defence team therefore said that Azzopardi had written to the Chief Justice in an abusive manner, and said that the sharing of it on social media along with other “abusive” posts about their client was nothing more than a continuation of “systematic intimidation, with prejudice and in clear abuse to the accused’s rights and with the collaboration of the media at the cost of a free process.” 

The defence team therefore deplored the “systematic intimidation of the judiciary in such a manner which threatens due process.” 

The letter was signed by Fenech’s defence lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Marion Camilleri, and Charles Mercieca.