Keith Schembri’s lawyers have argued that he should not be asked questions about the secret Panama company 17 Black in a libel he himself filed against former Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil.

The case revolves around the speech delivered by the then PN leader on March 6, 2016 in a national protest in Valletta against corruption.

OPM chief of staff Schembri was assisted by lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo in court this morning. Gatt told magistrate Francesco Depasquale that 17 Black had not been mentioned in the March 2016 protest. So today the court should rule that questions on 17 Black should not be allowed. Otherwise the proceedings would become a “fishing expedition” for ulterior motives, said the lawyer.

Lawyer Peter Fenech, for Busuttil, said that someone who has nothing to fear would not make these conditions. “What am I supposed to do? Not laugh? “The fact that a detail was not mentioned in a speech doesn’t mean that I don’t have suspicions and cannot use the information in my possession."

Panama Papers mentions secret companies, one of which belongs to Keith Schembri, he said.

"Schembri must answer. He filed the libel, now he must allow us to put questions even if documentation emerged later... What Busuttil had alleged was proved right, the pieces of the mosaic were falling into place," the lawyer argued.

The court put the case off to March 7 to deliver its decree specifically on this application.