So many Freemasons cluttered around Delia

Now his lawyer in the five libel suits against me, Arthur Azzopardi, turns out to have been a Freemason too. That solves the mystery for me of what he is doing on Delia’s campaign team, in his campaign WhatsApp group, and acting as his lawyer in the libel suits against me – when the obvious choice of a lawyer would be one who actually works in Delia’s firm and not for a rival firm.

Funny how nobody has pointed this out before now. Why is Arthur Azzopardi Delia’s counsel on those libel suits? He doesn’t work for Delia’s firm. He has his own firm. Delia has a whole team of lawyers working at his office, but he chose Azzopardi.

Azzopardi was working for Manuel Mallia at the time he became a Freemason. He told LovinMalta that Mallia “wasn’t happy about it” but said he wouldn’t have a problem with it so long as it didn’t impact on his professional life. 

I laughed when I read that. Mallia was a Freemason himself. I know because somebody of my acquaintance was in the same lodge. But in a conversation tonight, Arthur Azzopardi told me that he had no idea that Mallia was (is?) a Freemason, that Mallia did not introduce him to the brotherhood, and that he never saw Mallia at any of their meetings. He was introduced by another two men, he said, not naming them.

Azzopardi says that there used to be no more than 15 men at their Freemason meetings, making it sound like a jolly dinner where they drank wine and raised money for charity. This, too, is misleading – because there are 400 of them. But in our telephone conversation, Azzopardi says that he has no idea about this large number and never saw more than 15 people, “but I left in 2011 – or rather, they kicked me out – so I don’t know what has been happening since”.

Arthur Azzopardi and Manuel Mallia flank one of their clients