Azzopardi aiding hijacker’s lawyer, says ‘1,001 questions’ surround plane incident

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has temporarily stepped in to aid a lawyer in his defence of one of the two Libyan hijackers who held 116 people on a plane that landed in Malta last month.

Azzopardi told MaltaToday that he agreed to assist Patrick Valentino – the lawyer of the hijacker Ali Ahmed Saleh – until Valentino returns from his Christmas holidays abroad.

“I have not taken the brief and I am not representing the hijacker. It’s a legal matter – Valentino needed clarifications on the case and I agreed to step in on his behalf as a colleague,” he said. The case against the Libyans continues today.

He added that language barriers have so far prevented him from communicating with Saleh.

Saleh, 28, and Moussa Shah Soko, 27 – both from the southern Libyan city of Sebha – have been arraigned and charged with hijacking the Afriqiyah Airlines Airbus A320 on 23 December, and with committing acts of terrorism. They have also been charged with being in possession of replica weapons, using violence against one of the people on board, holding people against their will, threatening the passengers, endangering the safety of the aircraft, and attempting to cause financial or economic instability to the government. They have both pleaded not guilty and are being detained at the Corradino prisons.

Alternattiva Demokratika’s deputy leader, Carmel Cacopardo, has warned that Azzopardi’s involvement in the case posed a conflict of interest on the MP’s part.

“Azzopardi sees nothing amiss in how he – along with his party, his friends and other acolytes – pose ‘political’ arguments that the hijack was staged, and on the other hand pokes his own nose into the case,” he wrote in a blogpost. “He obviously feels that he has no conflict of interest between his responsibilities as an MP and his defence of the hijacker. Indeed, he feels he has every right to push himself forward. If he hasn’t yet understood that this isn’t his place, then he hasn’t yet understood anything.”

Theories that the hijack was staged have started to gather some steam. South American news portal El Ojo Digital (The Digital Eye) last week published a feature piece suggesting that it was all a public relations stunt intended to boost the Labour Party, or a means of smuggling merchandise into Malta.

The Nationalist media has also pounced on the conspiracy theories, and a Net News editorial – shared by Azzopardi on Facebook last week – lambasted the government for “putting on a pantomime” when the two hijackers were escorted into court from the main door on Christmas Day by fully-armed officers from the police force’s anti-terrorism unit.

“Everybody was already asking questions after seeing footage of the end of the hijack, with the passengers peacefully getting off the plane as though they were getting off a normal flight. In a press conference, Joseph Muscat didn’t even have the decency to inform the public that the hijackers weren’t even carrying guns, but plastic toys,” the editorial read. “A police squad that is supposed to be deployed in cases of serious threats was used by the government as part of a pantomime held to divert attention from the corruption that is constantly being exposed.”

Azzopardi last week also shared a video entitled ‘Hijack jew Xalata’ that purports to show passengers inside the Afriqiyah plane cheering and clapping as it landed at Malta’s airport.

“No comment. This is the supposed hijack,” the MP wrote.

He vehemently denied that he posted those links in an attempt to help out Saleh’s legal case, arguing that “if that were the case, then thousands of Maltese people are also trying to help the hijacker”. 

When asked by MaltaToday whether he believes the hijack was staged, the PN MP said he will not entertain any hypotheses but warned that “there are 1,001 questions that still need to be answered”.

“The questions have already been raised, including by former AFM and police officials. I am asking the same questions as a private citizen with grey matter in my head,” he said. “However, it would be presumptuous of me to say more than that as I have learned not to assume anything. In due course, court proceedings will provide answers.”