Joseph Muscat has criticised a report which found he breached parliamentary ethics by accepting expensive wine from murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, saying that its conclusions were based on "perceptions rather than facts". 

The former prime minister said the report by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler did not take into account the "extraordinary circumstances of the time".

Muscat was found guilty of an ethical breach by Hyzler, who was asked to investigate Times of Malta revelations that Muscat received three bottles of wine worth thousands as a birthday gift from Fenech in early 2019.

Fenech, who stands accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, was already a suspect in the case at the time. 

Writing on Facebook on Friday, Muscat said that it was easy to talk after the fact and that all decisions taken at the time were based on consultation. 

Muscat also used his defence to lash out at the Nationalist government that preceded his, saying that when Labour entered into government in 2013 they found "empty boxes" and no evidence of gifts given to politicians during two decades of PN administrations. 

Muscat reiterated that he was the "only" prime minister who left an inventory of gifts to the State. The list was only divulged through a parliamentary question.