Prime Minister Robert Abela on Thursday refused to say if he was forewarned about plans by police to search his predecessor Joseph Muscat’s home.

Speaking to journalists outside Castille, Abela instead repeated Muscat’s talking point about how PN MP Jason Azzopardi appeared to know about the planned search as early as Sunday.

Abela denied having received any threats from Muscat, saying the former prime minister has every right to defend his position.

Muscat's Burmarrad home was on Wednesday searched by police as part of a corruption probe into the Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) hospitals deal.

Financial crime investigators entered his house at around 7am and spent at least three hours on the premises, seizing the former prime minister's mobile phone, along with those of his wife Michelle and their two daughters.

While expressing faith in the country’s institutions, Abela said he felt he had a duty to speak out about the seizure of mobile phones from Muscat’s children

In comments to Times of Malta after the search, Muscat hit out at the decision by investigators to take his teenage daughters’ phones.

Abela said it is important a sense of proportionality is maintained, and the general public appear to have passed their judgement about the phone seizures.

Seizures of electronic devices are routinely carried out during similar searches by investigators.

Abela denied making any veiled threats to the magistrate through his statements about the phone seizure.

Times of Malta revealed in November how the former prime minister received €60,000 from Accutor AG, a company which in turn received millions from Steward Healthcare when it took over a contract to run three state hospitals from VGH.

It is understood that the police search was part of a bid by investigators to establish whether the payments into Muscat’s Bank of Valletta account from Accutor AG could be linked to corruption in the hospital deal.

“My message was consistent, no one is above the law, everyone is equal”, Abela said.