What happened in court yesterday morning was truly unprecedented. You had to pinch yourself to believe that the dramatic, surreal scenes were truly happening.

After running away from our questions on his Panama company and on his planned kickbacks from Yorgen Fenech on the power station project for two long years, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff collapsed under pressure and withdrew his libel case against me.

But not before some remarkable courtroom drama.

The context bears recalling.

This was a libel case that Keith Schembri filed against me after I had spoken at a protest against corruption following revelations made by Daphne Caruana Galizia in February 2016.

Daphne had revealed that both the Prime Minister’s chief of staff as well as his top minister, Konrad Mizzi, had opened secret companies in Panama.

At the time, we did not know that their intention was to receive kickbacks amounting to a staggering €5,000 a day from Dubai-based companies, 17 Black and Macbridge. Nor did we know that 17 Black was owned by one of the owners of the new power station, Yorgen Fenech.

Thousands of people had poured onto the streets for that protest on March 6, 2016, demanding that the Prime Minister sack both of them. In my speech I said that if my chief of staff or my top minister were caught with secret companies in Panama, I would have shown them the door instantly. “Barra! Barra! Barra!”.

But Joseph Muscat’s response was to stand by them. His failure to dismiss them clearly shows, especially after what we know now and what happened in court yesterday, that he is in it with them and is equally responsible as them.

Because our institutions are hijacked by Muscat, the police never investigated this clear case of corruption. Instead, we had to fight in court for three long years for a magisterial inquiry to be launched. That inquiry is still under way and we have heard of no progress whatsoever.

All the while, Schembri’s libel case against me moved at a snail’s pace in court. He finally testified on October 16, 2017, and his words earned him a strongly-worded blog by Daphne Caruana Galizia entitled “That crook Schembri was in court today, pleading that he is not a crook”.

She ended her blog with the words “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.” It was to be her last.

Daphne was assassinated. But she has been vindicated.

In my 20 years of public service, I have never witnessed anything of the sort

Yesterday in court, after running away from our questions since that fatal day, Schembri was forced to take the witness stand and face our questions. He entered the courtroom with a team of lawyers, supremely confident that he would escape our questions yet again.

Rather than take the witness stand he pulled out one excuse after another to avoid our questions. He tried it all. He asked the magistrate to abstain from hearing the case. He asked the court to stop the case because he was already facing criminal inquiries on the same matter. And he even asked the court to stop the case to allow him to file a constitutional case.

Thanks to my lawyers, Peter Fenech and Jason Azzopardi, his obstacles were dismissed by the court and he was left with no choice but to step up on the witness stand.

The first question was asked of him: “Why did you issue a press release saying that you had a business project with 17 Black and Macbridge?” 

He refused to reply.

The court invited him to reply.  He said that he was advised by his lawyers not to reply any questions that might incriminate him.

The court ordered him to reply.

He stood by his refusal.

In total, the court gave him no fewer than five stern warnings, explaining to him that there would be consequences if he continued to refuse. In terms with the law, those consequences include arrest. You could hear a needle drop in the courtroom.

As the magistrate started dictating a decree, he was interrupted by Schembri’s defence. In the circumstances, they said, Schembri would drop the case against me.

In my 20 years of public service, I have never witnessed anything of the sort. A Prime Minister’s chief of staff effectively admitting in open court that he was unable to rebut accusations of high-level corruption.

His surrender effectively means that what I said about him back in March 2016, after Daphne’s Panama revelations, was true.

There can be no other meaning.

The innocent do not run away from justice. Only those who are unable to justify themselves do.

This leaves Schembri with no choice but to resign. But it also leaves his political master, the Prime Minister, with no option but to assume political responsibility for his chief of staff’s inability to clear his name on serious accusations of corruption.

Our country can no longer be run by a corrupt gang that has now effectively admitted that it is corrupt. It is time for them to resign.

Simon Busuttil is former leader of the Opposition.