PN To ‘Urgently’ Discuss Former MP’s Claim It Accepted Donation Intended For Pardon Lobbying
Opposition Leader Bernard Grech has announced the PN will urgently discuss an allegation by former MP Jason Azzopardi that someone had donated money to the PN in return for the party campaigning for their relative to be given a presidential pardon.
“It is a very serious allegation and I categorically deny it,” Grech said on NET TV today. “I will convene the Administrative Council at 4pm today to urgently address this serious allegation and take all the necessary steps and actions. We truly believe in the rule of law and we cannot allow shadows like this to be cast on me, far less on the party.”
Azzopardi made the allegation yesterday after Grech said “all politicians have an expiry date” when asked in an interview about Azzopardi’s non-election to Parliament.
“Inventing expiry dates is easy,” Azzopardi said. “Could it be that I was an obstacle to those who gave money as a donation so that their relative could receive a pardon in 2021?”
Azzopardi didn’t specify what he was referring to. However, the former MP is also the parte civile lawyer for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family in the case against murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.
Fenech has long been seeking a pardon in return for information on other people allegedly involved in the murder.
In 2021, Grech suggested that Fenech should be given some kind of clemency if that’s what it takes for the “full truth to emerge”, arguing there is little doubt the suspect isn’t the only mastermind who was involved in Caruana Galizia’s murder.
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