Abela still avoids clear answers on legal service for Borg property deal

Prime Minister Robert Abela is refusing to address questions about a legal services rendered in his time as a Labour MP to Christian Borg, the car dealership boss accused of abucting and assaulting a victim in Rabat.

“This was an assignment of rights on a promise-of-sale,” Abela said at a Labour press conference for the 2022 election at the Rialto Theatre, insisting on his professional rights as a lawyer to carry out the service for Borg.

“It happened before I became prime minister, and three yeras before Borg’s court problems. Anything else being said about this is PN spin.”

Christian Borg is one of six accused with abducting a man in Rabat on 21 January, threatening to torture him and rape his sister. He is currently on bail, although the prosecution accused him of being the “mastermind” of the abduction.

In the deal in question, in 2018 Abela netted €45,000 on a contract to buy a Zabbar field from a third party, by transferring his stake to Borg a few months later.

Borg had applied for a development permit in November 2017, one year before having any stake in the property belonging to Malta Gas Distributors. The Abelas entered the picture in June 2018, with a promise of sale on the land partially transferred to them the same day that Borg’s development application was formally approved by the PA. Abela then transferred the purchasing rights on the deal to Borg’s company, Princess Construction for €315,000 in November 2018.

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But Abela has refused to address other journalists’ questions on the matter, evading any back-and-forth on the matter.

The property deal is known as assignment of rights (ċessjoni ta’ drittijiet fuq konvenju), which allows the proposed buyer in a promise of sale agreement, to pass those purchasing rights over to a third party.

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