Azzopardi To Appeal HSBC Heist Libel Ruling And Is ‘Ready To Take Case To European Court Of Human Rights’
Jason Azzopardi has announced that he will appeal a judgement which found him guilty of defaming PL MP Carmelo Abela when he claimed he had been involved in the notorious 2010 heist of HSBC’s headquarters.
Azzopardi said his appeal of Magistrate’ Rachel Montebello’s judgement will be based on both legal and factual grounds.
“I won’t reveal everything that I will mention in my appeal but I will mention one of a number of factual mistakes in the sentence,” he said.
“The court said that Carmelo Abela was a private person when the HSBC hold-up took place (in 2010) but that’s not true – he was an MP and Deputy Speaker, which means he was a public person.”
“I have no doubt that this was a genuine mistake and a lapsus by the court, but this is why appeals exist – and if needs be further remedies.”
Azzopardi has claimed that Abela, who used to work at HSBC, had been promised €300,000 in exchange for providing the would-be robbers with security keys and insider information about the bank’s layout.
His statement was backed up by brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, two of the hitmen involved in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
However, Magistrate Montebello found him guilty of defaming Abela and ordered him to pay €7,000 in damages, as well as court fees.
“The court condemns the irresponsible manner in which [Azzopardi] acted. Rather than going to the relevant authorities and exercising the necessary diligence, he published his beliefs because he felt he was right to reach that conclusion,” Montebello wrote.
She added that the right to free expression should never be interpreted as granting protection to people to publish what they please about third parties with no concrete basis.
However, Azzopardi said that he stands by what he said and that he is willing to take his case up all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if needs be.
“I won’t allow a police cover-up, in complicity with masonic criminals who carried out a hold-up, to conceal the truth,” he said. “The truth is immutable – whether it’s revealed after two days or 100 days, it is what it is.”
Azzopardi went on to criticise Prime Minister Robert Abela, who reacted to the judgement by calling out “mudslinging”.
“I know what you know about this crime,” he told the Prime Minister. “And I know that a few minutes ago, you told people from OPM to call up your poodles so that they can start a series of attacks today. Get this into your head – you won’t shut me up. The truth is greater than you or I.”
READ NEXT: Pjazza Cancelled: ONE TV’s Leading Political Show Goes Off Air After Seven-Year Run
