In 2002, Joseph Muscat was ordered to pay Daphne Caruana Galizia Lm1,000 (circa €2,300) in libel damages. Muscat implied in his book that Caruana Galizia had links to the Mafia. The court noted that Muscat’s testimony showed he was motivated to taint Caruana Galizia to pay her back for her writings. In short, Muscat lied out of spite.
On October 5, 2020, Muscat resigned his parliamentary seat in disgrace. He was compelled to resign as prime minister in the wake of damning revelations about Caruana Galizia’s murder and close links to his office.
Instead of remorse and contrition, the chronic narcissist came out bragging, showboating and lying.
“In my eyes, I saw no wrong moves take place before me,” he declared. He sowed doubt where none exists.
“Did the inquiring magistrate find corruption or not,” he asked in reference to Keith Schembri. The inquiry into Schembri’s money laundering has not been made public.
Schembri and Brian Tonna have been arrested and released on bail, their assets frozen. Does Muscat think this would have happened had the magistrate not found compelling evidence of corruption? But Muscat obfuscates and deflects to protect those who know too much about him.
Muscat does not need to see the conclusions of the latest inquiry. He was given a full text of the Egrant report ‒ the one he redacted to protect the same people. That report found Karl Cini had committed perjury and action should be taken.
The report noted that the prerequisite for a magisterial inquiry into Adrian Hillman had been satisfied with hundreds of thousands of euros funnelled into his British Virgin Islands company set up by Tonna.
The Egrant inquiry also exposed Schembri’s and Mizzi’s plans to set up a British Virgin Islands promotion agency led by Mizzi’s wife.
It found Nexia BT and Pilatus Bank documentation about suspicious transactions, concealed corporate relationships, probable money laundering and sanctions-evading activities.
All known to Muscat, but he saw no wrong moves.
Muscat’s government continued to pump millions of euros in direct orders to Nexia BT, continued to appoint them to selection boards and, even after Tonna’s arrest, appointed a Nexia BT’s partner chairman of the individual investment agency board.
Despite knowing about the money laundering allegations involving Hillman, Muscat appointed him as the government representative on the American University of Malta board.
Despite the incriminating information about Pilatus, Muscat continued to protect the bank. Muscat declared in his interview on L-Erbgħa fost il-Ġimgħa that he had found out about Mizzi’s Panama companies through the media.
But Mizzi testified in front of (then) Magistrate Aaron Bugeja on April 22, 2017, that Muscat knew about Roturoa and Hearnville (his Panama company) before the media reported it.
Muscat himself defended Mizzi when it was leaked, claiming that Mizzi told him about the company and declared it in his declaration of assets of 2016.
About Egrant, he exaggerated that “investigations were carried out in all the countries of the world”. The report stated that requests to Dubai authorities about whether Egrant held any accounts in Dubai had still not been answered.
The report noted that there was an external memory device that contained a subfolder called Egrant but no further evidence was found to show what the folder contained or to identify the memory device. The report concluded: “Its present whereabouts are unknown”. In short ‒ it’s been hidden.
But Muscat still bragged that the report exonerated his wife. The inquiry found no evidence that Egrant belonged to Michelle Muscat but did not conclude that Egrant did not belong to her either.
Muscat obfuscates and deflects to protect those who know too much about him- Kevin Cassar
He moaned that no action had been taken against Maria Efimova, who had ‘invented’ Egrant. “The magistrate ordered action to be taken ‒ have you taken any action,” he screeched. The Maltese authorities not only took action but hounded her relentlessly. A European arrest warrant was issued for Efimova when she fled to Greece. She was jailed there awaiting a decision on extradition to Malta.
Freeing her, the Athens court concluded that “there is no guarantee that she would be granted a fair trial in Malta”. A damning indictment of our country.
When asked who Egrant belonged to, Muscat retorted: “ask whoever created it”. It would have been pretty easy for him to ask Tonna, considering their close relationship.
Did the chat group with Yorgen Fenech and Schembri really exist? Yes, he was forced to admit. What did you chat about? Caught off guard, the beads of sweat visible, his erudition gone, he mumbled vaguely: “U kienet chat... iktar bdiet... matul żmien qabel ‒ xi ritratti dwar ikel, futbol, leġġera ħafna f’dan ir-rigward” (Oh it was a chat, it started some time ago, with photos of food, football, very light in this regard”).
Squirming uncomfortably ‒ can you assure us that there is nothing compromising?
He couldn’t. “I don’t know”. He didn’t have access to Fenech’s phone was his excuse. Unconvincingly he bleated: “Why should I worry?”
What about Bernard Grech’s request for an inquiry into the Electrogas deal?
He lied again. “Diġa saret”(It’s already been done). Of course it has not. A National Audit Office investigation has been carried out but no public inquiry has been held. But truth won’t distract Muscat when it’s inconvenient.
He finished off with more false claims. “I am the only prime minister under whom a major crime has been solved”. No major crime has been solved.
He falsely claimed: “I requested the intervention of the United States”. The request was made by a diligent police officer, not by Schembri and definitely not by Muscat.
Finally, the narcissistic trump card – playing the victim. “I have been hammered” (Ili naqla’ ġo fija).
As Muscat hopefully fades into oblivion, the nation must learn ‒ never to trust a narcissist; never to trust a liar.
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery and former PN candidate.