“We will not concede to extortion by our public servants,” the Caruana Galizia family said today, after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he was willing to drop the libel cases he had instituted against Daphne Caruana Galizia if her heirs admitted that she was wrong on Egrant.

Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb in October 2017, had alleged that the secretive Panama company called Egrant belonged to the Prime Minister and his wife Michelle.

A magisterial inquiry had found that there was not enough evidence to support these claims. Only the conclusions of the inquiry have been made public.

Muscat, who had described the Egrant claim as the “biggest lie in Malta’s political history,” had sued Daphne Caruana Galizia for libel.

In court today, Muscat hinted that he has since softened his stance, but a spokesperson for the Caruana Galizia family, when contacted by The Malta Independent, made it clear that they would not be taking up the offer.