Jason Azzopardi charged with illegal filming inside courthouse

After some discussion, the next sitting has been scheduled for 15 January at 12:30pm. That's all for today. Thank you for following this live blog with us.

The sitting seems to be over - the two legal teams are trying to find an ideal date for the next court sitting. Between birthdays and medical appointments, it looks like Jason Azzopardi will have to wait until January to hear the outcome of this case.

Lawyer Alfred Abela is requesting that the court call the editor of Net News’s Facebook page to confirm that the footage was published on their portal. He tells the court that no other questions will be asked apart from this, meaning he will not ask about the source of the footage.

Next witness is the Chief Security Officer at the Court Services Agency. He presents a pen drive with the CCTV footage. He tells the court that the footage contains no audio because the security cameras do not have microphones installed. 

Attard is shown the social media footage. He confirms that it is him and the Prime Minister, among others, in the footage sat outside the courtroom. 

With no counter-examination, his testimony is over.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard testifies next. He was one of the people filmed in the courthouse. He explains to the court why he was in court that day - to hear the court's sentence on the Nationalist Party's appeal whereby the court ruled that the State Advocate is empowered to sue Steward Health Care to recoup money paid by the State as part of the hospitals concession.

Next to testify is the Chief Marshall of the Courts John Micallef. He was sat down in the courthouse when the footage was allegedly taken. Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi asks whether he noticed Jason Azzopardi taking any videos, and he said he noticed him walking up and down the halls. 

Upon the request of the prosecution, the court is appointing a technical expert to download the CCTV footage from the court system and inform the court if this footage contains sound. If it does, the footage with audio will be presented in court.

More CCTV footage is being played out. Here, Jason Azzopardi can be seen walking into the entryway of a courtroom while looking down at his mobile. As he walks out, he puts his mobile up to his ear again. 

The CCTV footage is being played in court. It shows the Prime Minister and his team shuffling through papers, like in the social media footage. At one point, Jason Azzopardi is seen walking past while holding his mobile to his ear as if taking a phone call. 

When she saw the footage she sent an email to the Chief Justice to check whether anyone had been given the go-ahead to film inside the courthouse. He replied back saying he didn't authorise anyone and had not received any such request. She went on to file a police report on the matter.

Eunice Grech Fiorini, the CEO of the Court Services Agency, is first to testify. She says that on Monday 2 December she saw footage uploaded to Net News that was filmed inside the courthouse. After checking CCTV footage for this period, it appeared that Jason Azzopardi was passing by the moment the footage was taken. She says the clip uploaded to social media matched the CCTV footage reviewed.

Lawyer Alfred Abela, one of the prosecuting officials, told the court that there is agreement between the parties that Azzopardi is not being brought to court under arrest, and so if the court does not give a sentence today, there is no need for a bail request.

The case against Jason Azzopardi is starting now. He's sat on the defence's side of the courtroom with his legal team. In the room there's also Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina and former Repubblika president Robert Aquilina.

We're still waiting for Jason Azzopardi's arraignment - another case has just started being heard. However, he has just come into the courtroom saying that he will represent the parte civile in this other case. It turns out that, while waiting outside the courtroom, Azzopardi heard that the victim could not afford a lawyer on the case and offered to represent her for free and give her legal help.

The Labour Party has also issued a statement on the matter, but is instead attacking PN leader Bernard Grech and party "extremists" for defending Azzopardi.

"Bernard Grech thinks that there's a law for his clique and another law for the people. The extremists who took absolute control of the Nationalist Party immediately came out to defend former PN MP Jason Azzopardi, someone who speaks frequently about contempt of court but then pretends that no one should take action against him if he does it himself."

"Respecting the rule of law, Bernard Grech and Jason Azzopardi should stop practicing double standards on offenders once and for all. It is the institutions that decide guilt or not, and today we have further confirmation of the Nationalist Party's hypocrisy."

Another case has just started in front of Magistrate Monica Vella - we might be here a while. In the meantime, the Nationalist Party issued a statement of solidarity with Jason Azzopardi. The party said Robert Abela took this step because he is "bitter about losing the case the Nationalist Party filed concerning the biggest fraud in our country’s political history: the Vitals and Steward deal".

"Robert Abela’s decision is solely intended to intimidate anyone willing to expose information about him and the significant abuses he and his Ministers are committing. This decision is not only disproportionate but also cowardly, as it seeks to obstruct activists fighting for the rule of law in exercising their constitutional rights."

"Under Robert Abela, action is taken swiftly and in record time only when it targets someone who criticises him. Robert Abela has learnt nothing from the illegal and abusive arrest ordered under his predecessor against journalist Norman Vella, allegedly for taking a photograph of Kurt Farrugia and Ramona Attard in a public place at Malta International Airport."

Azzopardi's arraignment was scheduled to start at 2pm. However, Magistrate Monica Vella is still hearing other arraignments that were scheduled for earlier in the day. We will let you know when the proceedings are about to start. 

Earlier we were outside the courthouse to get first comments from Azzopardi ahead of his arraignment. His comment was short and sweet: "World upside down". 

Good afternoon! We are in Hall 11 at the Law Courts to follow the arraignment of Jason Azzopardi. The lawyer and former Nationalist MP is being charged with filming footage of Prime Minister Robert Abela and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard while inside the courthouse. It is illegal to take any photos or videos from inside the courts.