The government needs to immediately publish the full text of the presidential pardon granted to Melvin Theuma in view of his decision on Friday not to testify against the former chief of staff Keith Schembri, the PN said on Monday.

Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder plot, refused to testify in proceedings in connection with the phantom job in the public service which Schembri allegedly awarded him.

The shadow minister for justice, Karol Aquilina, said the attorney general and the commissioner of police need to explain what was expected from the state witness and whether the pardon covered the crimes Theuma was asked to testify about on Friday.

Aquilina observed that when the pardon was granted, Joseph Muscat's government knew that Theuma had been given a job with a government-owned company, and that he had close links with Yorgen Fenech and Schembri. The latter had even shown him around the Auberge de Castille, including the Cabinet Room and posed for a picture with him during the process in which Theuma was given the job.

The pardon was granted a day before Schembri resigned

"The people of Malta and Gozo have a right to know under which conditions the pardon was granted to Melvin Theuma, what information he was obliged to give, and what crimes he was obliged to testify about," Aquilina said.  

The government also needed to declare who was involved in the preparation of the pardon proclamation, who was consulted, and who was present, apart from ministers, at the Cabinet meeting which discussed the pardon.