Former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia's use of ministerial discretion to grant Maltese citizenship to his wife before he had been married to her for the legally-established five-year period was not only an abuse of power but was also a blatantly illegal action, the Nationalist Party insisted this afternoon.

Former Minister Manuel Mallia however, has denied the allegations, arguing that he did not use Ministerial discretion arguing that his wife attained citizenship lawfully.

PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami and shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi held a press conference following the publication a story on The Malta Independent on Sunday, which observed that the Home Affairs Ministry - headed by Carmelo Abela since Dr Mallia's dismissal last December - brushed aside a number of questions on the matter.

Dr Fenech Adami insisted that Mr Abela's ministry was engaging in a cover-up, as Dr Mallia had tried to do last year when his driver was involved in a shooting incident.

Dr Mallia had married his Romanian-born wife Codruta Cristian in July 2012, but Ms Mallia became a Maltese citizen just two years later, even though, as the two MPs pointed out, Article 6 of the Maltese Citizenship Act states that foreign spouses of Maltese citizens can only acquire citizenship after five years of marriage - irrespective of whether they are EU citizens or not, Dr Fenech Adami stressed.

The PN deputy leader said that everyone else in Ms Mallia's position had to wait for five years to become Maltese, stating that such a provision was included because Maltese citizenship was something to be valued.

But he also said that the case was just one of several in which a minister's family was well taken care of by the government, highlighting the well-paid job granted to the wife of Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, with little to show for so far, as well as the employment of Gozo Minister Anton Refalo's wife in his ministry.

Dr Fenech Adami also said that a similar - although less serious - incident took place in the UK, when former home secretary David Blunkett - the equivalent of Malta's Home Affairs Minister - fast-tracked the granting of a visa to his partner's nanny.

Mr Blunkett, he pointed out, had resigned when the story surfaced, later noting that politicians assumed political responsibility in "normal" democracies.

The PN deputy leader was highly critical of the Home Affairs Ministry's reply to questions by The Malta Independent: the ministry had simply said that "Mrs Mallia, who was already an EU citizen, acquired citizenship according to provisions of Maltese citizenship legislation."

Dr Fenech Adami insisted that the ministry was lying, lamenting that just five months after Dr Mallia's unceremonious dismissal, Mr Abela was still not ready to condemn his predecessor's misdeeds.

But the PN deputy leader insisted that along with Dr Mallia and Mr Abela, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also had a lot to answer for.

On his part, Dr Azzopardi emphasised that Dr Mallia's actions were in breach of the Maltese Citizenship Act, although he noted that Article 10 of the same act could provide an exception to the 5-year rule.

However, he said that he hoped that this exception - for people who have rendered "exceptional services to the Republic of Malta or to humanity" or their spouses - was not applied in this case.

Former Minister denies

Former Minister Manuel Mallia has denied allegations that he used Ministerial discretion for his wife to achieve citizenship.

“My wife applied for citizenship by naturalization under article 10(1) of the Maltese Citizenship Act (Cap 188) and not on the strength of her marriage to me. Foreigners may submit an application under this article if they had been residing in Malta for 5 years prior to the date of application”.

“My wife satisfied this condition”.

The Minister responsible for Citizenship matters has the discretion to grant or refuse such applications, Dr Mallia said.

“Applications for citizenship under such a provision are mainly considered under policy guidelines. In this respect during the previous legislature it was the established policy that requests, by persons who have been residing in Malta for a period of ten years and who have children, who are citizens of Malta, even if such persons are not married, would be considered favourably - obviously if such persons are of good conduct and there are no issues that go against the public interest. Such a policy was retained by the current Government. Several foreigners have been granted citizenship on the basis of this criteria both in the previous legislature and under the current Government”.

“My wife had been residing in Malta for the said ten year period prior to her application and she has three children who are citizens of Malta in addition to the fact that she is married to a citizen of Malta”.

“I did not examine her request and it was not approved by me. Indeed the certificate of citizenship was not signed by me but independently without my intervention”.

“There was, therefore, nothing improper in the acquisition of citizenship by my wife”.