Joseph Muscat says he will cooperate with the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia after he was summoned to appear on Friday.
The board of inquiry’s secretary on Wednesday said court bailiffs had handed the summons to the former prime minister’s father when they turned up at his residence.
It was not immediately clear whether the former politician, who resigned from politics in the aftermath of the journalist’s murder, would attend Friday's sitting.
However, in response to questions sent by Times of Malta, Muscat said that he intends to cooperate.
“I intend attending and replying to the questions of the Board of Inquiry which I myself appointed as prime minister,” he said.
Last week, former energy minster Konrad Mizzi was forced to appear but refused to answer over 100 questions put to him by the panel of three judges and lawyers for the Caruana Galizia family.
Muscat will be the most high-profile person to testify at the inquiry investigating whether the state could have prevented the anti-corruption journalist’s murder in 2017.
The former Labour leader announced his resignation in December last year amid the fallout of the investigation into the murder.
His former chief of staff Keith Schembri has been named as a person of interest in the murder probe, which has seen four people arrested and charged, including prominent businessman Yorgen Fenech.
I intend attending and replying to the questions
Muscat has previously admitted inviting Fenech to a party and receiving expensive wine from him when he was a known suspect in the murder case, claiming that to refuse to do so would have raised suspicions.
In 2014, the business tycoon also gifted Muscat expensive watches and in the same year, the former prime minister holidayed at his hotel in France but has failed to answer questions about whether it was a gift.
Muscat’s summons was revealed in the latest meeting of the board, which also heard from the chairman and secretary of the Permanent Commission against Corruption. Both said that they were precluded at law from testifying.
Saviour Attard, who has been secretary to the commission since May this year, told the board that as at end of 2019, the permanent commission had 10 pending cases.
The commission’s chairman Judge Lawrence Quintano quoted the law that the members are precluded from testifying and any breach could have criminal repercussions.
Caruana Galizia family lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia asked whether the commission’s reports were published in any way, but the two representatives did not know.
She said that according to laws regulating the commission, every report is given to the justice minister.
If corruption is found, the report must also be sent to the attorney general. It does not say whether the reports or the annual report is public.
She told the board that she was not after details of cases the commission investigated or names of any people it investigated but how the commission was operating and the conclusions of its investigations.
The sitting was adjourned after the board asked for Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis to be summoned to reply on the work of the permanent commission and reports he received.
Next week, the board will on Monday hear Individual Investor Programme chief executive Jonathan Cardona and Times of Malta editor-in-chief Herman Grech, on Wednesday parliamentary secretary Rosianne Cutajar and Edward Zammit Lewis, and on Friday Auditor General Charles Deguara.