Joseph Muscat has no intention of publishing a list of gifts he received during his tenure.

“I did what I was obliged to do according to protocol,” Dr Muscat said when asked whether he would be releasing the list. He declined to comment further. 

Dr Muscat’s reply contradicts the position people close to him had adopted last month, when Times of Malta revealed that he had received expensive bottles of wine and watches from Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

Mr Fenech gave Dr Muscat three bottles of Pétrus wine, valued at around €5,800, during a February 2019 party held at Girgenti Palace, as well as two watches worth thousands on previous occasions. Dr Muscat knew that Mr Fenech was under investigation when he invited him to the Girgenti party. 

I did what I was obliged to do according to protocol

The former prime minister had not denied receiving the gifts, saying instead that he would be leaving gifts which “could not be returned” to the State.

He said that information was being “selectively leaked” about his relationship with Mr Fenech in an attempt to smear him. 

Sources close to Dr Muscat had also added he would be publishing a list of gifts he had received, once he resigned as prime minister. 

After the issue of the former prime minister’s gifts had first emerged, the government had issued a statement saying no inventory of gifts had been left by prime ministers prior to 2013.

It said that a document published in the press which purported to be such a list was in reality an inventory found behind the door of all rooms in government departments which only included gifts given directly to the State by dignitaries, and not other gifts given to prime ministers.

Dr Muscat was succeeded as prime minister by Robert Abela on Monday and now serves as a Labour Party backbench MP. 

Times of Malta last week revealed that Malta’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Permanent Commission Against Corruption, is investigating the gift-giving allegations.