Court reprimands Delia loyalist over altercation with Jason Azzopardi

A 46-year-old man has been reprimanded by the court after it ruled that he insulted and threatened Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi.

John Borg, a loyalist to former Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia, had been outside party headquarters waiting for the outcome of a stormy executive meeting in July last year. The executive passed a vote of no confidence in the leader.

Azzopardi was one of several MPs who pushed for the no confidence vote in Delia.

Borg was charged with assaulting Azzopardi without injuring him, breaching the peace and threatening the MP.

Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo found Borg guilty on all counts and reprimanded him. The court also imposed a personal guarantee of €600 on Borg for a six-month period.

In her deliberations, the magistrate condemned Borg’s reaction and said that he should have used his vote in the executive to express dissent rather than act as he did.

However, she also reprimanded Azzopardi for confronting Borg when the latter insulted him. “The fact that [Azzopardi] turned around to confront [Borg] did not contribute to calm the situation. Given that he is a public person and was aware of the heavy atmosphere, he could have ignored the insults and approached the police to ask them to take the necessary steps,” she said.

Lawyers Kris Busietta and Julian Farrugia assisted Azzopardi.

Lawyers Mario Mifsud and Christian Camilleri acted as defence counsel to Borg.