Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has declined to take any immediate action against OPM employee Neville Gafà after claims in court that he offered Libyan witnesses hush money to prevent them testifying against him.

Mr Gafà was accused by a whistleblower in 2014 of trying to extort money out of Libyans seeking a medical visa to enter Malta.

A witness claimed in court this week that Mr Gafà had offered him €200,000 to €300,000 not to testify in libel proceedings the OPM filed against The Malta Independent about the medical visas scandal.

The witness was one of five men to testify via Skype in libel proceedings Mr Gafà filed concerning the allegations.

Questioned by Times of Malta if the Prime Minister would be taking any action against Mr Gafà in light of this testimony, an OPM spokesman said “legal proceedings are to take their due course and the PM will take decisions accordingly”.

All five men testified through a translator and said that Mr Gafà had asked them for €2,500 to cover visas and medical treatment in Malta, which they needed back in 2014 after suffering injuries during the war in their home country.

At the time, the Maltese government had offered free treatment to casualties of war in Libya.

Following the testimony, Mr Gafà filed a constitutional application claiming that a series of irregularities had taken place during the court sitting.

He dismissed the testimony as a “publicity stunt involving blatant lies by individuals, who were reluctant to return to their homeland”.

Mr Gafà’s precise role in the government and his ties with Libya have been shrouded in mystery for the past months, with Muscat’s office last month refusing to hand over a copy of the contract under the Freedom of Information Act.

The official hit the headlines last year after meeting a Libyan warlord singled out by the UN for human rights violations.

After details of the trip were revealed, Mr Gafà claimed to have just bumped into the warlord during his “personal visit” to Libya.

During this same trip, Mr Gafà said he was acting as Dr Muscat’s special envoy during meetings with Libyan government officials.

At the time, the Prime Minister’s office denied he was acting in that particular capacity.

Soon after the trip, Mr Gafà was quietly employed by OPM on a position of trust basis, ostensibly as a “coordinator”.