Jason Azzopardi to be reprimanded by party for Hilton freebie from Tumas Group

PN ethics committee finds breach of ethics in Jason Azzopardi’s acceptance of Tel Aviv hotel stay

The Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi will be reprimanded by his own party for having solicited help from Tumas magnate Ray Fenech in obtaining a hotel stay in Tel Aviv, and accepting an undeclared gift for a free stay at the Hilton Hotel.

The hotel freebie was revealed by newspaper Illum, which led to the auto-suspension of Azzopardi. At the time of the 2017 stay, the PN was a major critic of the Tumas Group’s interest in the Electrogas gas plant.

In a report by the PN’s code of ethics, PN ethics commission chairman Prof. Joseph Pirotta said it was being recommended that Azzopardi be reprimanded by the PN’s Administative Council, “making it clear that acceptance of any form of gifts in breach of the Code of Ethics and rules of transparency and disclosure will not be tolerated.”

READ ALSO: Jason Azzopardi admits that Tel Aviv hotel stay was paid for by Tumas Group

Pirotta said that in an environment where there was “a pressing and urgent need to clean up politics and in order to re-establish trust in the political class” it was imperative that politicians’ words and actions match up, and that all MPs conduct themselves with integrity and correctness.

“The Commission expects full compliance with the party’s code of ethics and will escalate the recommended sanctions in view of the gravity and circumstances of the case.”

Azzopardi was accompanied by Nationalist MP David Thake to the commission hearing. A member of the commissioner, Jean-Karl Soler, abstained from hearing the case on request of Azzopardi, ostensibly for having been a critic of the backbench rebellion against former PN leader Adrian Delia.

READ ALSO: Six reasons Jason Azzopardi was wrong to hide his Tumas gift

The PN commission found a breach of ethics occurred when Azzopardi accepted the Hilton stay from Ray Fenech, which he reciprocated with a silver gift.

“There is a breach of ethics independently of the intention of the donor or the donee and independently of the fact that the acceptance of the gift did not influence the politician in the exercise of his duties. These are considerations which could have a bearing on the recommended sanction but not on the existence or otherwise of the breach,” the commission said.

The commission conceded that the three-day Hilton stay did not influence Azzopardi in his role “against the institutionalisation of criminality and corruption even when the target of his criticism were and still are members of the Tumas Group.”

Azzopardi is the lawyer of the Caruana Galizia family. Former Tumas CEO is facing charges of having masterminded the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.