Former chief of staff Keith Schembri was released from police arrest on Tuesday evening, some 20 hours after he was arrested as part of a money-laundering investigation.

“He was interrogated, given disclosure of evidence and released,” one of his lawyers said, adding that their client would be returning for further questioning.  

Sources said Schembri was released on police bail.  

Schembri was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning at his Mellieħa home, hours after a court issued an order to freeze all assets belonging to him, his immediate family, accountants at Nexia BT and others. 

His lawyers had said during the day that their client wanted the police to disclose the conclusions of a magisterial inquiry into the alleged money laundering, warning that he would 'notparticipate' in an interrogation otherwise.

The inquiry was concluded earlier this month.

The alleged laundering of funds derived from kickbacks on passports first surfaced in an article by Daphne Caruana Galizia in April 2017. 

Then Opposition leader Simon Busuttil subsequently presented documents to a court and formally requested a magisterial inquiry.

That was concluded earlier this month, but the outcome was not made public.