Prime Minister Robert Abela should come clean about a property deal with people believed to be involved in organised crime, the Nationalist Party said on Monday.

Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi said Abela should come forward with all the necessary documents related to the property deal.    

He was reacting to a Times of Malta report published on Sunday which detailed how Abela had been involved in a 2018 property deal with Christian Borg, who now stands accused of an alleged violent kidnapping of a former employee. 

Christian Borg boasts of having a close personal relationship with Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Borg is also the subject of a police investigation into organised criminal activity.

The property deal involved a legal transfer of the purchasing rights to Borg which tax experts say can be used to conceal possible financial crime.  

26 questions for Abela 

During Monday’s press conference, Azzopardi laid out more than two dozen questions for Abela which he said the public deserved to know the answers to.

Azzopardi asked what the value of the property deal was, how much Abela had personally made out of the deal, and whether he had declared this to the authorities. 

He also asked whether Abela had carried out the necessary due diligence on Borg, prior to entering into a property deal with him.  

Times of Malta has already solicited replies to these questions prior to pub location, however, Castille did not provide replies. 

Links to Maksar crime group? 

Meanwhile, Azzopardi asked whether it was true that Abela had done property deals with alleged criminals Robert and Adrian Agius, known as Tal-Maksar. 

The Agius brothers are in court over their alleged role in the assassinations of Dahne Caruana Galizia and lawyer Carmel Chircop.  

Times of Malta reported in 2020 how Abela had previously acted as a lawyer for the Maksar brothers.  

Was property deal a money-laundering scheme? 

Azzopardi also asked Abela whether he could provide the public with assurances that the money in the property deal was not the proceeds of crime.  

Had Abela sought clearance from the Chamber of Advocates prior to entering into a property deal with his own clients?  

This, Azzopardi said, went against rules laid out for legal professionals.