Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi said on Wednesday he was withdrawing libel cases relating to allegations of money laundering, saying that he will focus instead on projects that are beneficial to the economy.
Last week, a court rejected an appeal, by Busuttil and Casa, who had tried to revive a request for an inquiry into Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. The PN MP and MEP later said they intend to take the case to the European Court of Justice.
In a statement, Konrad Mizzi said “significant milestones were reached in untangling the web of deceit spun against Minister for Tourism Konrad Mizzi, by Simon Busuttil, David Casa, and others in the old PN guard.”
“The Criminal Court has determined that the allegations of money laundering in connection with the Panama Papers revelations are mere speculation. In the absence of evidence (and there is none), the court dismissed Busuttil’s mudslinging as nothing but conjecture,” Mizzi said.
“In utmost contempt of the ruling, and disrespecting the Court, Simon Busuttil and David Casa sought further action by the Court of Magistrates. They again asked for an investigation which had just been declared as unwarranted and baseless by the Criminal Court. Not surprisingly, the Court of Magistrates saw through the ploy and dismissed the second request. It declared that there is no uncertainty in the prevailing legal situation – the courts had already decreed conclusively that Busuttil and Casa’s allegations are no valid basis for a criminal inquiry.
Clearly, Simon Busuttil and his acolytes sought a platform to remain politically relevant after a humiliating defeat at the 2017 polls. They have now collected further defeats in the Courts of Law, Mizzi said.
In view of the outright rejection of the allegations by the Courts of Law, Minister Mizzi said he noted that it has now been determined that there is no evidence supporting allegations of wrongdoing. Using media law to punish those who made such allegations would serve no purpose greater than that which has already been decided by the Courts.
Consequently, Minister Mizzi said he will be withdrawing several related libel cases. While some defendants may rejoice to know that they will not shoulder a monetary cost for their lies, it should also be clear to them that they already lost their political credibility.”
By withdrawing distracting libel cases, Minister Mizzi said he can focus greater energy on delivering projects in areas which will continue to provide a significant boost to the economy and to make a positive change to the lives of Maltese families.