The prime minister and the Labour Party should publicly apologise for the lie that Daphne Caruana Galizia's report on Egrant was the reason for the last general election having been called early, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said on Tuesday. 

Speaking in parliament, he observed that during Monday's hearing of the public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia it was revealed that it was not true that the election was called early because of Egrant, as Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party had repeatedly claimed.

Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff, had confirmed that the decision to go for an early election was taken in February-March 2017.

This when Caruana Galizia wrote about Egrant in April.  

"Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party had been lying...they embarked on a campaign of intimidation and demonisation of Daphne Caruana Galizia, accusing her of destabilising the country, when they knew this was a lie," Azzopardi said. 

The lie had been kept up by Muscat up to two weeks ago, he added.  

He said it had now been established that:

• 1. In February 2017 Daphne Caruana Galizia first mentioned 17 Black, the secret Panama company whose owner (Yorgen Fenech) was not known at that time, although Joseph Muscat knew at least a year before. The company had links with Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. 
• 2. Keith Schembri admitted that the decision to call an early election was taken in February-March, at a time when Malta held the presidency of the European Union.  
• 3. It was previously revealed that February-March 2017 was also the time when Melvin Theuma was tasked with contracting the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
• 4. It was revealed on Monday by Keith Schembri that the government knew, at least by May 2017, of a massive leak of Electrogas documents, even though another Electrogas shareholder said he only learnt about it in December 2017.  

Azzopardi said he had restricted himself to what is already publicly known and people could join the dots. 

Although Caruana Galizia wrote about Egrant on April 20, 2017, up to two months after the decision to go for an election, Labour, like every tyrant, had sought to whip up popular support by painting her as seditious and destabilising the country, Azzopardi said. 

Now that the mask had come down, the people could see how the election was won through deceit. It was no wonder that somebody wanted to shut up the inquiry.

The people now expected Robert Abela, on behalf of the Labour Party, to apologise, Azzopardi insisted.