Former prime minister Joseph Muscat was allowed to keep his diplomatic passport after his resignation, as part of the severance package he received when leaving office. 

The information was revealed in parliament in reply to a parliamentary question by PN MP Graham Bencini. 

In his reply, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that Muscat's severance package, which was approved in December 2019, included the retention of his diplomatic passport and "other protocol facilities".

In 2020, the Office of the Prime Minister refused to divulge the details of the package, however, it was subsequently revealed that he had received some €120,000 in severance pay.  

Times of Malta also revealed last year that Muscat's Sa Maison office was also part of the package funded by the taxpayer. 

In his reply to the PQ, Abela also revealed that the severance package for the former prime minister includes a car with a driver as well as the use of a second car, two telephone landlines and an internet connection, a computer or laptop with a printer and scanner, a mobile phone with calls covered up to €2,330 a year, a copy of the Government Gazette, as well as a personal assistant. 

It was revealed in a PQ last week that the second car granted to Muscat was being used by his wife Michelle. 

Muscat was forced to step down as prime minister after a series of national protests that mounted pressure following the arrest of hotel magnate and Electrogas owner Yorgen Fenech. 

Fenech, who is accused of having masterminded the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, had close ties to former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri as well as former minister Konrad Mizzi, through secret companies in Panama and Dubai. Muscat had repeatedly defended Schembri and Mizzi prior to the arrest.