[attach id=453281 size="medium"]Stefan Grech is under scrutiny.[/attach]

Stefan Grech, the EU administrator being investigated over an anti-Semitic assault, said he had been drinking for five hours before the incident but insisted it was not motivated by anti-Jewish sentiments.

“I was out celebrating 10 years working with the European Commission and had been drinking mojitos from 7pm till about midnight when all this happened,” Mr Grech said, adding he was not drunk but was not “100 per cent” fit either.

He is being investigated by the Belgian police for allegedly beating a European Council employee, an Italian woman, on the head with a licence plate commemorating Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

The woman is also claiming Mr Grech called her “a dirty Jew” and later said that “[Adolf] Hitler should have finished off the Jews”.

Mr Grech yesterday admitted he had “tapped” the woman on the head with the steel plate after a heated argument but insisted the incident was not motivated by any anti-Semitic sentiments.

I am not a racist. I have Jewish friends and black friends

“I am not a racist. I have Jewish friends and black friends. And have nothing against them,” he said, adding he did have a strong opinion about the political situation in Palestine.

Mr Grech is also the subject of an internal inquiry by the Commission, which said it would not suspend Mr Grech until it finished its inquiries but would not tolerate such behaviour if it were true.

In 2002, Mr Grech was found guilty of owning and distributing child pornography. He was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Asked if it had known of this conviction prior to employing Mr Grech, a spokesman for the Commission said yesterday he had submitted a clean criminal record when applying for the post in 2004.

Mr Grech, however, said that not only had he informed the Commission of his conviction prior to his employment but had done so in writing and it had even been mentioned during a meeting with his superiors about the assault on Thursday.

Mr Grech said he had been discussing politics with a group of Italians at a bar in the popular Luxembourg Square, outside the European Commission offices. “We were out drinking and you know how it is with Italians, debates crop up about football or politics,” he said.

One of the Italians at the bar, he continued, showed him a large Mussolini tattoo on his forearm. Meanwhile, another went on to produce a full-sized licence plate. Mr Grech said he was “joking around” with the licence plate when it caught the attention of the Italian woman. The two had an argument, which Mr Grech said then “degenerated” and “Jews were mentioned”.

He said he was whisked away by a friend, who told him to leave the bar when the altercation started. However, he returned the following day to try and track down the woman to smooth things over.

Mr Grech said he had not yet spoken to the police about the incident, despite receiving a letter informing him that the authorities wanted to discuss something with him. He said he was awaiting legal advice on what measures to take next.

Mr Grech, who is the brother of shadow economy minister Claudio Grech, yesterday resigned from his position as chairman of labour union, Generation 2004.

In a statement, the union said: “We have learnt with deep concern about press articles, according to which he has been accused of having assaulted a person while voicing anti-Semitic statements

Generation 2004 condemns any form of violence, racism and discrimination.”