Former prime minister Joseph Muscat on Tuesday insisted he has already apologised to the family of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and is not expecting one back.

In a letter to the editor on Times of Malta, Muscat takes umbrage with a letter written by Peter Caruana Galizia, the late journalist’s widower.

Caruana Galizia had written on September 1: "Joseph Muscat has nearly apologised, conditional on the ridiculous demand that we first apologise to him."

Muscat writes that he had not put any conditions to his apology, and that it was made irrespective of his reservations about a public inquiry into the murder.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb explosion outside her family home in 2017.

In 2019, as public pressure for accountability grew, Muscat resigned office when the police investigation led to the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, with questions inevitably raised about his links to the Auberge de Castille.

Saying he does not wish to enter "a tit-for-tat with Caruana Galizia", Muscat on Tuesday said he is writing to “correct one glaring inaccuracy”.

“Firstly, in my interview with Times of Malta I did not ‘nearly apologise’ but I apologised as is my duty as prime minister during whose tenure this heinous crime took place,” Muscat writes.

In an interview with Times of Malta, Muscat last month said he understands the Caruana Galizia family’s pain.

“My mother wasn’t killed, theirs was,” he said.

He said during the interview that he hoped that just as he had accepted the outcome of a public inquiry into the murder of the journalist, they too would accept the outcome of an inquiry into the Egrant affair.

“If they want an apology, I will make one, I won’t try to avoid that. Even though I’m the prime minister under whose leadership the alleged killers were caught. But that won’t bring their mother back,” he said.

An inquiry led by a panel of judges, in July concluded that the state should shoulder responsibility for the murder of the journalist.  

Muscat writes that rather than an apology – which he says would be useless – he had asked the family to acknowledge the conclusions of an inquiry which had looked into claims the once-secret offshore company Egrant belonged to his wife.  

In 2018, a magisterial inquiry had concluded that there was no evidence linking Muscat, his wife Michelle or their family to the Panama company.