Fredrick Azzopardi’s convenient acquittal – Kevin Cassar
Fredrick Azzopardi, former Infrastructure Malta CEO, has been cleared of crimes he was accused of. Not because he didn’t commit them. But our police were so slow to prosecute him that his crimes were time-barred. And the court couldn’t even consider them.
Another of his alleged crimes was extinguished because Infrastructure Malta paid a fine. Very conveniently, Azzopardi has been declared innocent of all charges. And all the headlines, which is the only thing most people read, trumpet the distorted narrative that ‘Former IM boss Fredrick Azzopardi cleared over Wied Qirda works’.
Azzopardi was facing a long list of charges. He was accused of failing to abide by the Environment and Resources Authority stop-and-comply order, breaching environment protection laws, making a false, misleading or incorrect declaration and committing those acts which, as a public officer, he was duty bound to prevent.
In 2019, Azzopardi ordered works to proceed at a protected site in Wied Qirda despite ERA’s order to stop. He was your typical cowboy. He had Joseph Muscat on his side. He knew he could do as he pleased and no law, no regulation, no enforcement notice, no environmental authority was going...