The Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report handed over by MEP David Casa to a magistrate for investigation yesterday would, under any normal circumstances, send shivers down a Prime Minister's spine and force him to make some very uncomfortable choices.

But then again the Prime Minister has showed himself time and time again to be a master of manoeuvrability in very tight spaces.

In fact, the Prime Minister is certainly no sufferer of claustrophobia - he has been stuck between a rock and hard place since members of his government were exposed with their pants down in the Panama Papers.

And from within that very tight space he has managed to dodge bullet after bullet, but for just how long can he keep it up? Will there be another cosmetic reshuffle? Will Minister Konrad Mizzi once again supposedly be placed under the personal supervision of the Prime Minister to keep an eye on him?

No, he will most likely ignore the whole issue and wait out this latest storm while magisterial inquiries drag on and on.

This newspaper had published the pertinent extracts of the report in question, it handed them over to the investigating magistrate and even made the extracts we had available to the media at large for scrutiny. Yesterday Casa handed the full report over to the courts.

The issue, and especially with Nationalist MEP David Casa leading the charge, is being put down to a case of partisan political bickering. This is anything but. This is not a political issue simply because political parties are involved and because Opposition politicians and taking the government to task.

To those who persist in that claim, we have to ask: Could anyone in their right mind imagine for even a second that a government politician or functionary would have brought such issues to the fore?

Of course not, even though this is a situation that comprises the very essence of the national interest. It is about some very serious accusations being levelled against leading members of the government that deserve to be investigated, irrespective of whether the electorate felt the need for any such investigation last June.

This is an issue that goes beyond a popular vote, it is an issue that is eroding the country's credibility on a nearly daily basis and any Prime Minister worth his salt, and who is not beholden to his underlings for one reason or another, would have cut them loose long ago.

Casa, who has also brought the issues surrounding Pilatus Bank to the attention of European authorities, upped the ante yesterday by taking the full report that made its way to his hands to the judiciary. He said he had to resort to such action as he had no faith in the work of the police, the attorney general or the FIAU. And given recent experiences we cannot really blame him for having lost faith in the institutions that are meant to safeguard the rule of law when it comes to that rule's application by the man in the street or those in the highest echelons of power.

Mizzi, of course, issued a vehement denial, pointing to his non-audit by Crowe Horwath. He issued a blanket denial and put the facts contained within the report as a 'PN allegations', although it is difficult to understand how Mizzi could know the full contents of the report himself.

As said, this newspaper had also published extracts from the report, which we have verified to have been legitimate, but which Mizzi, like his Cabinet colleague Edward Scicluna that 'this campaign was coordinated with the writer of the draft report, and the report [was] written to be eventually leaked.'

If this indeed a case of total politically motivated conjecture Mizzi should open himself up to a full, independent international-based investigation by impartial bodies and not by an accountancy firm that Mizzi himself engaged to do that questionable job. This may, we understand, impinge on national sovereignty, to which the government would certainly object, but nothing else will put the matter to rest.