The fact that the government has remained practically silent on the allegations that one of its ministers visited what is effectively a brothel, and that he engaged the services of a prostitute, while on government business in Germany is very strange indeed.

One can understand that most of the government has been busy over the last week with the EU summit circus having come to town, and all that comes with such events.  But it is almost unfathomable that no one, save the minister himself on two rather controlled occasions, has even dared address the issue.

This newspaper from day one has been persistently asking the minister and his staff to provide us with some kind of proof that he was not at the brothel as is being alleged.  Since last Tuesday morning, in the wake of the accusations levelled by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, we have been asking him for some form of restaurant or bar receipt or some other form of an alibi that would prove he was elsewhere at the time he was accused of being at the now infamous, infamous at least here in Malta, FKK Acapulco in Velbert.

Those questions, however, have been met with complete silence, not even an acknowledgement up to yesterday evening.  We found this somewhat strange considering the fact that when the very same minister had been implicated in that flat rental scandal some time ago, we published a copy of a cheque he had made out showing that he had made the disputed payment after all.

But this time around, nothing. Not even a polite ‘Get lost’.

Then on Thursday the minister made an appearance on a television programme in what clearly appeared to be a controlled environment, in which he vociferously and repeatedly denied the accusations he is facing.

And on Friday, after the opposition media broadcast its footage from inside the brothel itself, in which a journalist spoke to employees who appeared to have recognised the minister and his companion, the minister vented his outrage on Twitter and a Department of Information statement demanded the details of those employees so they could be called as witnesses in the libel cases he would be filing.

But that was it, and importantly, despite the fact that on that television programme the minister said that he had in his possession proof that he was not where he was alleged to have been on the evening in question.

And although it does not necessarily imply guilt, the statement beggars belief.  To wait for court proceedings before clearing your name over a scandal of these proportions, when you could easily and quickly do so with the proof apparently in your possession, makes absolutely no sense at all.  If that proof were in hand, it could easily be made public to immediately clear one’s name and then be presented in court as evidence at a later date.

But to let this scandal fester in the meantime would be tantamount to utter foolishness.

It is true that there is nothing illegal about visiting a brothel in Germany, but as far as we are aware brothels are illegal in the country in which the person facing the allegations serves as a minister of cabinet. 

In the same vein, would it be acceptable for a government minister to smoke cannabis in an Amsterdam coffee shop while on a government business trip, an act that would similarly be illegal in Malta? 

Both acts would perhaps be acceptable for your average Maltese citizen to do so since they are perfectly legal respectively in Germany and in Holland, but ministers are meant to be held to higher standards.

If there is no truth to the accusations, the minister should produce the evidence he says he has without delay. Anything short of that implies guilt and that is something no government, especially this one that has been plagued by so many scandals over the last four years, can afford to live with.