Updated 6.50pm

The Labour Party today maintained the pressure on shadow minister Jason Azzopardi to resign in the wake of an Auditor General report which found serious shortcomings in a transfer of land in Qormi.

Addressing a press conference, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said the land was sold to PN donor Zaren Vassallo for a pittance, after Mr Vassallo himself admitted to meeting the minister responsible for lands.

READ: PN publishes Vassallo loan repayment cheque

The Auditor General stated that that the former Lowenbrau site in Qormi was transferred by a PN government for €706,000 when its value was €7.83 million.The original 1990 agreement transferring the land stated it could only be used as a brewery, but this clause was dropped when it was sold to Mr Vassallo.

Dr Bonnici said Dr Azzopardi should take legal action against Mr Vassallo if he is lying about the meeting.

Both Tonio Fenech and Jason Azzopardi, who were the minister and parliamentary secretary available for lands at the time deny meeting Mr Vassallo and discussing the deal.

In a subsequent press statement, the PL said that Mr Vassallo had said in court that he had been promised a compromise on the Lowenbrau land deal. 

The party challenged Dr Azzopardi to say Mr Vassallo had lied under oath and accuse him of perjury. 

'Stop lying' - Azzopardi

In a reply, Dr Azzopardi reiterated that he had never met Mr Vassallo to discuss the land in question. 

"Not only that," he wrote. "When I discovered that a clause inserted when the land was bought by Marsovin had been dropped, I immediately ordered legal proceedings."

Dr Azzopardi said that the PL had given up hope of convincing the public that it wasn't corrupt, and had now turned to mudslinging, in an attempt to make the PN appear as "dirty" as it was. 

Silence in parliament

Dr Azzopardi chose not to answer when parliamentary secretary Deborah Schembri asked him to explain Mr Vassallo's testimony with regard to the land deal. 

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia said that there was nothing he could do to compel a member of the House to speak.