Today's issue of The Times of London took a number of swipes at the Maltese government in an interview with former Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit official Jonathan Ferris, and it also reports that Pilatus Bank whistleblower Maria Efimova fears for her life, should she return to Malta.

In the interview (entitled Malta tries to bury sleaze claims), Ferris, who had been sacked from the FIAU after the last election, tells The Times of London that the government is trying to stop him from publishing more details linking it to Azerbaijan's ruling family.

He is quoted as saying: "I will fight to get this information out, which is really damaging for the state and for the politicians and other officials involved."

Such information, according to the report, details how millions of euros had been "channelled by powerful Azerbaijanis and others through Maltese bank Pilatus and other financial institutions in return for kickbacks on gas deals".

The newspaper reports how assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had alleged that Michelle Muscat, the wife of Malta's Prime Minister, had received some US$1 million from Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijan's ruler.

Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR is the lead partner in Malta's newest gas-fired power station and has signed a lucrative and contentious 18-year exclusive gas supply agreement with the government. It is also said to be eyeing business through Malta's prospective natural gas pipeline and its future positioning as a gas hub.

While Ferris says he wants to release the information he has in his possession in court, where he is suing the FIAU for unfair dismissal, the newspaper reports that Malta's Attorney General is fighting to have the court proceedings held behind closed doors.

Ferris was quoted as saying: "They are also trying to stop the evidence being presented at all."

He also told the newspaper that he had made contingency plans in the event of his death, saying: "...in the event of my death all the information I have will be released."

The newspaper also managed to contact Russian whistleblower Maria Efimova, who had allegedly leaked documents to Caruana Galizia showing Mrs Muscat to have been the owner of a secret Panamanian company, Egrant, which had been set up after the 2013 election alongside two others owned respectively by the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri and one of his top ministers, Konrad Mizzi. While Schembri and Mizzi have admitted their ownerships of the companies, after they were exposed in the Panama Papers, the owner of the third company, Egrant, has proved something of a mystery.

In one of her last interviews published in print, last April Caruana Galizia had detailed Efimova's claims in an extensive, tell-all interview with this newspaper, where she detailed how she allegedly discovered that Mrs Muscat was the company's owner.

Efimova, who has fled the country despite ongoing court proceedings against her filed by her former employer, Pilatus, told The Times of London that: "If I go back to Malta, I will not be alive for very long."

She would not tell the newspaper anything about her current whereabouts.

After she fled the country, the Maltese courts issued European and international warrants for her arrest after she failed to show up for court hearings in the case Pilatus had instituted against her.