Updated 2.52pm with police statement

Karl Muscat, the prosecutor at the Attorney General's office who was found dead in his Swieqi home on Wednesday, died of heart failure an autopsy has found.

A police statement said the medical examination showed that the body "had no signs of violence on it or any other signs of injuries which could indicate that he defended himself from any aggression."

It found that Muscat died of cardio-respiratory failure and further tests will now determine what triggered that heart failure.  

Relatives called police after finding the 43-year-old unconscious at around 12.45pm in his Triq is-Sirk home on Wednesday. A medical team tried to revive him but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police told the media at the time that they believed there were no third parties involved. Despite this, many speculated that the lawyer may have been killed - something that has been ruled out following the autopsy, according to sources.

At the attorney general’s office, Muscat worked on some high-profile cases. He was leading the prosecution against car dealer and alleged kidnapper Christian Borg, and stepped in to cover for colleagues when needed in the cases against Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri.

The rumours were further fuelled by the fact that Triq is-Sirk, where Muscat lived, has a dark recent history: in July 2020, Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder was found in critical condition after he stabbed himself multiple times in a house on that same street.

Sources told Times of Malta that Muscat was suspended from work recently over an allegation of assault.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella is leading an inquiry into the death of the Rabat native, a son of the late PN MP Pierre Muscat.

The prosecutor followed his father’s political footsteps for some time, sitting on the Rabat local council as a PN representative for just over a year between 2019 and 2020, before moving on to focus on his legal career.