Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi said he is being sued by the former owner of Satabank over claims he made that the bank should never have been given a licence to operate. 

In a Facebook video, the MP said last Thursday he was informed that he had received an envelope addressed to him from Bulgaria. Upon retrieving it, he discovered that he was being sued for libel in that country. 

The SLAPP case was opened against him on 3 December 2019 and relates to a speech he delivered in Parliament on 13 November, 2018. 

In the speech he had said no action had been taken against the bank or its owners, in spite of intelligence reports drawn up in 2013.

Satabank had been shut down by the authorities in 2018 after an inspection was carried out jointly by the FIAU and MFSA. The inspection had flagged serious deficiencies in the bank’s anti-money laundering controls.

In his video on Facebook, Azzopardi said he had been slapped with the suit for saying that the bank should not have passed the local due diligence.  

The MP said the suit was meant to have the effect to stop others from speaking out too.

“I am in good company when I see that I am among the Times, Manuel Delia, Daphne Caruana Galizia her self faced SLAPP threats,” he said.  

Azzopardi is the Caruana Galizia family lawyer and is representing the family in cases related to Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination in October 2017.

SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, are suits filed aimed to stifle free speech or intimidate people from speaking up.

The Nationalist Party calls on Robert Abela to stop dragging his feet on anti-SLAPP legislation

The PN expressed solidarity with MP Jason Azzopardi who is facing a SLAPP suit in Bulgaria over comments he made in Parliament about the owners of Satabank.

In a statement, the PN also expressed solidarity with journalists facing similar threats.

PN said this was yet another instance of SLAPP tactics that Malta needed to legislate against, especially to protect journalists.

Five weeks after the publication of the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry, Abela has done nothing to implement the recommendations, including to protect journalists from SLAPP actions.

Azzopardi himself had tabled a Private Members Bill on how to tackle SLAPP cases, but the government has never permitted a discussion on the subject.

The Nationalist Party urges for a discussion on the subject in Parliament at soon as possible.

Labour Party implements all reforms promised

In reply, the Labour Party said that the government has a track record of implementing legislative reforms for better governance.

The "Robert Abela administration" is the one that presented the highest number of laws and carried out reforms, the PL said.

It added the PM this week said that reform against SLAPP suits was in the "immediate agenda" of the government. Such action is to be condemned, whoever is a victim, the PL said. 

Like all other reforms, this will be implemented after discussion and consultation.

This will then be added to the "historical reforms" that no Nationalist government had the courage of doing, the PL said.