The Nationalist Party on Friday reiterated its calls for Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg to resign, saying revelations in the Pilatus Bank case showed she is consistently abusing her position. 

In a statement issued after Repubblika president Robert Aquilina presented arrest warrants for Pilatus top brass that the police had never executed, the PN said that it was unacceptable for Buttigieg to disregard the work of the judiciary. 

A magistrate looking into Pilatus Bank had signed off on international arrest warrants for bank chairman Ali Sadr Hasheminejad and other top bank directors in February 2021, Repubblika revealed on Friday. 

But none of those individuals had ever been arrested, with just one Maltese bank director, Claude-Ann Sant Fournier, facing charges related to Pilatus. 

Pilatus Bank was closed down by EU regulators after it was implicated in alleged money laundering breaches. 

In its statement, the PN said that through the AG’s lack of action, the Justice Minister had ended up being an accomplice in the Pilatus Bank cover-up.

The country had ended up having a Justice Minister who shirked his responsibility with the ridiculous excuse that institutions should be allowed to work. In his own words, the Justice Minister admitted that he was useless.

So the Opposition was insisting that Buttigieg should resign immediately. The longer she stayed in her position, the greater the damage to the position of AG and the administration of justice in Malta, it insisted.

The Opposition also reiterated its proposal that the person to hold the position should be appointed with a two-thirds parliamentary majority following a public call.

Only this could ensure that this constitutional position reacquired the respect and credibility it deserved and that the person occupying it implemented their constitutional duty as chief prosecuting official in an effective, responsible and professional manner.