No mediation in libel suit filed by Carmelo Abela against Jason Azzopardi

There will be no mediation in the libel suit filed by Carmelo Abela against Jason Azzopardi over claims the minister was an accomplice in a failed bank heist.

Magistrate Rachel Montebello was informed by Abela’s lawyer, Pawlu Lia, in today’s first sitting that there will be no mediation and the allegations will be contested.

Lia accepted that the sitting be deferred because Azzopardi’s lawyer, Joe Zammit Maempel, could not make it for personal reasons.

Azzopardi had said in a Facebook post that Abela was promised €300,000 to provide criminals footage and access cards to be able to carry out a heist on HSBC Bank headquarters in 2010. Abela has denied the claims.

At the time, Abela worked at the bank and also had access to the equipment that produced security access cards.

The claims of a “sitting minister” having been an accomplice were first made by Vince Muscat and Alfred Degiorgio – the hitmen in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

However, Azzopardi outed the minister’s name in a Facebook post, which prompted Abela to file an urgent libel suit against the Nationalist MP.

Vince Muscat, Daren Debono (not the ex-footballer) and Fabio Psaila are awaiting trial for the failed heist.

Testifying in the compilation of evidence against Muscat and Debono in February 2011, Abela had admitted that he sometimes used the access card equipment.

MaltaToday reported yesterday that the police are investigating the claims against Abela and asked the judge who is expected to hear the Muscat-Debono case, for the minister’s 2011 deposition to be made available to them.

In an affidavit presented in court, Abela “categorically and absolutely” denied any complicity in the heist.

The case continues next month.