‘The Court Is Very Upset’: Jason Azzopardi Ordered To Delete Three Facebook Posts About Yorgen Fenech
Jason Azzopardi has been ordered by a judge to delete three Facebook posts concerning Yorgen Fenech, the businessman charged with the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Madam Justice Edwina Grima had some stern words for Azzopardi this morning in a pre-trial hearing that quickly turned quite tense.
Azzopardi, beyond being very outspoken on a number of issues in Malta, from allegations of corruption scandals to the murder of Caruana Galizia, is also a lawyer representing her family.
No stranger to making his thoughts very public, Azzopardi had also spoken about Yorgen Fenech during a Lovin Malta interview which has since had to re-uploaded after a court order earlier this week by Judge Edwina Grima to edit it.
After Fenech’s legal team argued that Azzopardi’s comments – and a couple of recent Facebook posts – risked influencing the jury ahead of the long-awaited trial, the court intervened, and it was this topic which was being debated earlier today.
“Don’t speak to me about discrimination”
As reported from court by Times of Malta, it didn’t take too long for tensions to come to a head during the session.
Azzopardi was asked to take the witness stand and address the Facebook posts, which he was shown printed copies of by Fenech’s defence. But when he when claimed he was being treated unfairly, Grima was quick to firmly clap back, saying if any similar court order had to be breached, everyone in court would simply be “wasting time”.
“The court is very upset,” Grima reportedly told Azzopardi. “You’re not realising what this means to these proceedings. The court might consider continuing these proceedings behind closed doors.”
Azzopardi’s defence was that, while one the posts in question was actually shared before the initial court order banning any reference to Fenech’s request for a presidential pardon, the other two were not uploaded after the last court decree which related to his interview with Lovin Malta.
After another tense moment involving Fenech’s defence lawyer Charles Mercieca, the judge ordered the two sides’ lawyers to follow her to her chambers, with everyone returning some minutes later for her decision to be announced.
It was here that Azzopardi was ordered to immediately remove the three posts in question, and for everyone to not make any reference in public to “the guilt or otherwise of the accused who was to date an innocent person, so as not to stultify the judicial process.”
Beyond this, Grima also ordered the media to not publish what Azzopardi had read out from those Facebook posts in court today, arguing it would simply be “rubbing salt in the wound”.
What do you make of these latest developments? Do you agree with Grima’s decision?
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