OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri has, through a DOI-issued press statement, launched a scathing attack on the Sunday Times of Malta over its editorial today.

“The Times asserts three ‘facts’ in its leader urging its readers to vote for Busuttil. None of them are factual - and to assert them as such reflects a disgraceful performance from what was once the country’s most respected journal-of-record,” Mr Schembri said.

The editorial said there is “serious evidence that Keith Schembri is a money-launderer.” Keith Schembri rejected this. “There is no such evidence. The Times has now written hundreds of stories about me - all framed as ‘anonymous sources tell us…’ or ‘a report is rumoured to exist..’ or simply reporting accusation as conclusion. What every one of these stories has in common is the lack of a single concrete piece of evidence in any of them.”

The newspaper also said Joseph Muscat had “dismissed this evidence as inconsequential. “No, he didn’t.  In response to the initial wave of media stories, he established a magisterial enquiry to ascertain whether there was any substance to them. An unprecedented step in accountability for a sitting Maltese Prime Minister,” Schembri said.

He also commented on the part where the editorial said “the police have failed to investigate… Keith Schembri is above-the-law.”

Describing this as “utter nonsense,” Mr Schembri said: “the independent inquiry is proceeding normally. That’s how the law works; along with the fundamental principle that we are all presumed innocent unless proven guilty – no matter who we are, or where we work.”

The PM’s number two man said people are entitled to their own opinions but not to their own facts.

”I expect this kind of deranged conspiracy theorising from Busuttil. He wants to be Prime Minister. But the media is supposed to at least pretend to be objective. Instead, they are simply reprinting - and magnifying - every unfounded allegation spewing from the Leader of the Opposition. The Maltese people deserve far, far better,” he said.

Mr Schembri is the subject of no less than two FIAU reports, one of which looked into payments of over €650,000 he made to former Allied Newspapers managing director Adrian Hillman and another into alleged kickbacks he took from Brian Tonna with relation to the IIP scheme.

Two magisterial inquiries were launched about him after evidence was presented in court by Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil.