Adrian Delia announced he had published the Egrant inquiry report in its entirety on Tuesday and said that "disgusting" elements the authorities failed to act up were the reason why it was kept hidden for 18 months.

"I am frankly disgusted by facts, possibly criminal, found in the report, which the attorney general and the prime minister knew about but did not act upon, involving people who had an office in Castille. Those people were  allowed to stay in their position with absolute impunity. That is the reason why the report was hidden for 18 months," Dr Delia said.

He included a link to the report in a Facebook post.

"Corruption breeds in silence and in order to smash this criminal, corrupt clique we need all the facts to come out fully and immediately," Dr Delia said.

He said he would let the people reach their judgement.

He said the PN parliamentary group had agreed on publication of the report, despite not having read it yet, because the overriding priority was for all the truth to come out. 

No details were immediately available. 

The Egrant magisterial inquiry was launched at the request of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat after blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia in April 2017 had reported that Mrs Muscat was the ultimate beneficiary of funds deposited in a secret Panama company called Egrant.

Leaks through the Panama Papers had shown that Egrant Inc was opened on the same day as another two Panama companies owned by Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri. The three companies were opened by Nexia BT, owned by Brian Tonna.

Joseph and Michelle Muscat had strongly denied the claims. The Prime Minister went on to call it "the biggest lie ever told".

The inquiry, conducted by then magistrate Aaron Bugeja, had taken 15 months and found there was no evidence to substantiate the claims.

Upon the inquiry’s closure in July 2018 the Attorney General had issued its conclusions but refused to publish the entire report, arguing that some details still had to be investigated, and the report also made reference to people who were unconnected with the case.

Many of the claims were based on an account by former Pilatus Bank employee Maria Efimova. The inquiry, however, also found that no member of the Muscat family had accounts at Pilatus Bank. Declarations of trust handed to the investigating magistrate contained falsified signatures, the inquiry found.

“A hundred suspicions do not amount to a single piece of evidence,” the report concluded.

Dr Delia went to court demanding a fully copy of the report. An appeals court finally upheld his request on Monday. 

Labour reaction - Report confirms conclusions published last year

In a statement, the Labour Party said publication of the full report only confirmed what was contained in the conclusions, already published. 

"It simply confirms that the claims that Egrant belonged to the prime minister's family were the biggest political frame-up ever."  

It said the prime minister never had a problem about the publication of the report, as long as related investigations were not prejudiced. 

Dr Delia, however, was not awaiting this process. He was prejudicing investigations so as to defend the PN, which had created this political frame-up.

 

 

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