Updated 3.36pm with government and PL reactions below.
The PN on Wednesday slammed an "incompetent" Attorney General who it claimed was fulfilling the government's interest by refusing to publish the 17 Black magisterial inquiry report.
Victoria Buttigieg was only placed there to act as the government’s “puppet”, justice shadow minister Karol Aquilina told a press conference.
On Monday the AG refused to publish the inquiry after denying a request by Opposition leader Bernard Grech, his predecessor Simon Busuttil and MEP David Casa.
Last week Times of Malta revealed that former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi were among five individuals set to face criminal charges over plans to receive payments from 17 Black, a secret offshore company owned by businessman Yorgen Fenech.
Standing outside the AG’s office, justice shadow minister Karol Aquilina reiterated the party's request to the AG to publish the full magisterial inquiry.
Aquilina said the PN has no faith in the AG, as over the years “she took actions that were only in favour of the interests of the labour government”.
Charging the accused was not enough, Aquilina said: it was the public’s interest to know what was in the full report.
Aquilina said this was a repeat of the Egrant and the Vitals inquiry, where the AG refused to publish the full report, only giving prime minister Robert Abela full access to the inquiry.
PN MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici meanwhile called the AG “incompetent”.
Mifsud Bonnici said that Buttigieg was only placed in that position to cover up corruption by the Labour government.
Although the exact nature of the charges from the 17 Black inquiry remained unclear, much of the inquiry reportedly focused on plans for Fenech to funnel millions of euros to Schembri and Mizzi through their offshore structures in Panama.
Fenech was leading Electrogas during this time when the consortium secured a €450 million government contract to build and operate a new power station in Delimara.
Electrogas director Paul Apap Bologna and Mario Pullicino, who is a local agent for the floating storage tanker servicing the project, are also expected to face charges. Both Apap Bologna and Pullicino held secret offshore companies similar to 17 Black.
The ownership of 17 Black was revealed by Times of Malta and Reuters in 2018.
A magisterial inquiry into 17 Black and the Panama scandal was triggered following a report by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit that was sent to the police.
Lawyer Jason Azzopardi had filed parallel requests on behalf of former PN leader Simon Busuttil, MEP David Casa and Repubblika, which were eventually merged into one inquiry.
These charges against Schembri and Mizzi follow last year’s corruption charges over the Vitals privatisation scandal, which also charged former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Government condemns Opposition 'disservice'
In a statement, the government condemned insulting remarks about the AG made by the Opposition. Such comments, it said, were aimed only at putting pressure on the work of the Attorney General's Office.
"That one says that the Attorney General is incompetent and uses the kind of insulting adjectives used by the Opposition is the worst form of disservice to the judicial institutions of the country," the government said.
The government said it was reiterating its confidence in all the institutions of the country.
Separately, the Labour Party accused the PN of double standards. The PN called for respect for the institutions but then insulted them when they did not play to its tune, the PL said.
No one should give in to the provocation and intimidation by the PN, which was still bound to the politics of the past where it thought it did everything right and others did everything wrong.
The Opposition's statement on the Prime Minister was a lie, the PL added.
"The prime minister brought about major reforms in favour of governance, transparency and the strengthening of the rule of law. Changes that the Opposition never had the will to implement."