A former business associate of developer Joseph Portelli was granted bail after prosecutors said he entered Mercury Towers carrying a steak knife and headed towards Portelli’s offices.
Lovin Malta, citing court proceedings reported by MaltaToday, identified the accused as 52-year-old Martin John Azzopardi. The arraignment followed an incident at the St Julian’s complex on 27 October.
The court heard that Azzopardi had been at a nearby restaurant, where he allegedly drank a bottle of wine and took a steak knife with staff permission. Prosecutors said he then went into Mercury Towers and made his way upstairs towards offices used by Portelli and his family.
What matters in court is not the rumour that gathers around a name like Portelli’s, but the act alleged and the restrictions that followed. An employee reportedly saw Azzopardi in an agitated state and tried to calm him. Before any meeting with Portelli, the defence said, Azzopardi left the knife wrapped in a napkin in a bathroom and was not carrying it during their conversation.
The knife was later found by an employee, according to the case presented in court, and police were informed. That sequence appears to have shaped the bail argument: the prosecution treated the knife’s presence in the building as serious enough to arrest and arraign him, while the defence relied on the claim that he had discarded it before meeting Portelli.
Magistrate Gabriella Vella granted bail against an €800 deposit and a personal guarantee. The court also imposed a three-year protection order covering Portelli and his family, barred Azzopardi from entering several places, and ordered electronic monitoring through an ankle bracelet.
Those conditions say more than the deposit does. Bail was granted, but with controls designed to keep distance and make it measurable.
Police inspectors Pierguido Saliba and Christian Xuereb led the prosecution. Lawyer Gianella de Marco appeared for the parte civile. The case remains ongoing, and Azzopardi is presumed innocent unless the charges are proved in court.
Ryan C 
Dua Mifsud 
Marcus Azzopardi