Former minister Konrad Mizzi is trying to negotiate a guarantee with Prime Minister Robert Abela that he will not be arrested and investigated by the new police commissioner, Jason Azzopardi, the PN’s justice spokesman has claimed.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Azzopardi said this is the real reason why Mizzi is still in the UK.
Mizzi, who was revealed to have set up a secret offshore structure while in office and was investigated by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, has been a "fugitive" since March 13, Azzopardi said.
He claimed that Mizzi, together with three other people, had committed graft to the tune of millions of euros in Montenegro, a country Azzopardi described as "the most corrupt country in Europe".
Azzopardi said that Mizzi’s official credit card placed him in Montenegro in September and October 2014, and in February, June and July, 2015. Mizzi’s personal credit card placed him in Montenegro in November 2015.
Azzopardi said he had asked, in a parliamentary question, for a programme of Mizzi's official visits during those trips, but this had been denied on the basis that the visits were all related to ministerial work in the energy sector.
During some of the 2015 visits, Mizzi had also been accompanied by his personal lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici, Azzopardi said.
List of events
During his parliamentary speech, Azzopardi listed a series of events and occurrences related to Mizzi, Enemalta and its assets.
In August 2014, a Bill transferred Enemalta Corportation's assets to Enemalta plc. That same month, Mizzi was given the power to remove any restrictions on Enemalta transferring its property.
That same month, D3 Power Corporation Ltd bought the Enemalta power station.
In June 2015, Mizzi had signed a source of funds/wealth declaration form. Nexia BT's Karl Cini had sent this form to Panamanian attorney Luis Quiel one day following Mizzi's June 2015 visit to Montenegro, Azzopardi said.
This declaration form identified Mizzi’s source of wealth as being personal assets and proceeds from business trade.
In July 2015, Gasol (Malta) Limited transferred its interests in Electrogas Malta Limited to GEM Holdings Limited, Socar Trading SA and Siemens Projects Ventures GMBH. In October of that year, an agreement, written in English and Montenegrin, concerning the land lease and construction of a wind power plant in the country was reached.
One month later, in November, Enemalta and Montenegro struck a deal to build a wind farm. Enemalta submitted a bank guarantee of €1.5 million, Azzopardi said, as he challenged the government to publish it.
Azzopardi noted that the card used by Mizzi for the November 2015 trip was a personal one and the transactions processed on it were for just 1c, showing they were only carried out to ensure the card was valid.
The fact that the minister had not used his credit card during this trip indicated this was likely a cash-based trip or that the cost of the trip was paid for, Azzopardi said.
He noted that an agreement between Malta and Montenegro had been signed just two days earlier, raising the question as to why Mizzi had refrained from using his official card during the trip.
Azzopardi continued that in December 2015, an email from Karl Cini to Mossack Fonseca's Adrian Dixon gave instructions to "go ahead and start the opening of the accounts for those two Panama companies".
Apart from all this, former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s last visit abroad as Prime Minister was to Montenegro and he was accompanied by his former chief of staff Keith Schembri, Azzopardi said.
"Prime Minister Robert Abela has to explain why he is covering up for Mizzi and what devilish pact is being drawn up," Azzopardi told parliament.
The PN MP said it was now obvious why the new police commissioner would be placed under a year's probation as this would mean he could be dismissed if he did not comply with the alleged request not to investigate Mizzi.