Jason Azzopardi Withdraws Claims Calling Minister Owen Bonnici A ‘Liar And Criminal’
Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi has withdrawn claims calling Culture Minister Owen Bonnici a “criminal” and a “liar”, putting an end to their libel suit.
Azzopardi posted the claim to his Facebook page in December 2019, soon after the PN obtained a full copy of the Egrant inquiry.
“No wonder they report publish the words ‘criminals’ and ‘liars’. They are too kind in the face of Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Owen Bonnici, Konrad Mizzi, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini,” Azzopardi wrote.
Bonnici soon filed for libel. A few sittings were held, but this morning Azzopardi retracted all his allegations.
“I showed that this was an exercise of mud-slinging,” Bonnici wrote on social media.
“I am determined to keep delivering my utmost, as I have been doing throughout my whole career in the service of the public, so that with renewed energy and hand in hand with the rest of my colleagues, our country and the Maltese and Gozitan families keep going from strength to strength and move forward.”
Azzopardi’s claims were a reference to a detail in the report which revealed that Bonnici had wrongly claimed that the Egrant story precipitated the election in 2017. In court, he also referenced other supposed “lies”.
He also said that Bonnici’s defence of disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi made him a “criminal” by association.
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