Ray Fenech Says He Hasn’t Donated Money To PN Or PL In Recent Years
Tumas Group chairman Ray Fenech has denied that he or his business group donated money to either of Malta’s two big parties in recent years.
Lovin Malta reached out to Fenech after journalist Manuel Delia quoted sources discussing what was said during an urgent PN administrative committee meeting held last night to discuss allegations made by former MP Jason Azzopardi.
According to Delia, PN deputy leader Robert Arrigo alleged the PN had recently accepted donations from Fenech via a Qormi-based intermediary, but then retracted this statement following an internal review of the PN’s donations.
The PN also published a statement late last night to clarify that alleged donations were discussed during the meeting, the party hadn’t received any donations form the Fenech family in recent years.
Ray Fenech’s nephew Yorgen Fenech has been charged with the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Former PN MP Jason Azzopardi
The PN was thrown into controversy yesterday after Azzopardi resigned as a party member rather than face an internal inquiry into his claims that Yorgen Fenech’s relatives had donated money to the PN in return for the party campaigning for the murder suspect to be given a presidential pardon.
When resigning, Azzopardi said that in December 2021, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech met six businesspeople, including two male relatives of “a man being tried in connection with an assassination” who aren’t involved in Tumas Group.
The former MP is believed to have been referring to two of Yorgen Fenech’s cousins.
Azzopardi said that before the lunch began, these two men approached Grech to discuss their relative’s longstanding request for a presidential pardon in return for information implicating more masterminds in the Caruana Galizia murder.
“I am informed that the PN leader gave his assurance that were he to become Prime Minister, he would be ready to recommend a pardon in this case,” he said.
Murder suspect Yorgen Fenech
Azzopardi noted that Grech had already come out in favour of granting Fenech some kind of clemency, with the PN leader stating in an interview last year that there is “little doubt” he wasn’t the only mastermind.
“I disagree with [Grech] over this issue and already expressed myself in this regard. I find this behaviour to be unacceptable. In my books, politicians should be careful not to give the impression that they’re ready to compromise with mafiosi.”
“The only audience afforded to criminals should be the courts, and not political parties. Moreover, this gives off the impression that the need for parties to collect donations from those who can afford them gives wealthy criminals some kind of preferential access.”
“Grech alone knows whether his decision to publicly argue in favour of a pardon was the result of donations that were granted or whether the two events are completely unrelated. I internally criticised how the two events – his assurance to the two relatives and his public declaration in favour of a pardon – confirmed how vulnerable politics is to criminal interference.”
Grech has denied allegations of wrongdoing and the PN Administrative Council has expressed its unanimous support for the Opposition Leader.
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