The Labour Paety has urged former minister Jason Azzopardi to explain his links with Marc Gaffarena, currently at the centre of controversial expropriation deals involving the current government.  

In a statement, the PL said Dr Azzopardi criticised others but did not explain his own actions when he was parliamentary secretary responsible for lands.  

It said that according to the media, in mid-2010 Dr Azzopardi directed his private secretary to assist Mr Gaffarena to redeem the groundrent on a property in Sliema.

"Dr Azzopardi has remained silent on such a serious allegation of political interference," the Labour Party said. 

This property, it added, had been mentioned in one of the press conferences held by the PN in order to put the government in a bad light.

In a reaction, Dr Azzopardi said the Labour Party was defending the scandal which had made Mr Gaffarena a multi-millionaire off taxpayers’ money which attacking individuals who wanted the truth to come out.

Dr Azzopardi noted that the PL had revealed that the Sliema property was one of the properties being given to Mr Gaffarena as compensation for the expropriation of the Old Mint Street property. This showed how the PL was as one with Mr Gaffarena.

Furthermore, such statements showed how it was Labour which gave Mr Gaffarena what he wanted, not the PN.

The same had happened in the case of a petrol station in Qormi, The PN government had stopped it from operating because it had no permit, but Labour promptly issued the permit after the general election.