Prime Minister Joseph Muscat indicated today that he will not publish the alleged documents on a €100,000 loan OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri is said to have taken from Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna.
PN Leader Simon busuttil had alleged that Keith Schembri received around €100,000 in kickbacks from Brian Tonna for the IIP scheme. Mr Schembri, in response to the allegations, had said: "for the record, Brian Tonna did settle a transaction of a loan for which the necessary evidence exists, which loan was made in 2012 and hence well before Labour entered Government and before the IIP scheme was conceived." Dr Busuttil had brought the situation before Magostrate Aaron Bugeja, who is looking into separate allegations regarding Egrant and the Prime Minister's wife, Michelle. Magistrate Bugeja released a court decree saying that the inquiry into the allegations against Mr Schembri and Nexia BT's Brian Tonna will be conducted by another Magistrate.
The Prime Minister, asked by The Malta Independent whether he would publish these documents (regarding Mr Schembri's statement that a loan took place), Dr Muscat said: “There is no doubt that all the evidence Keith Schembri has will be presented to the Magistrate conducting that inquiry.” Pressed as to whether or not he would make them public, he said “I believe first they should be given to the Magistrate.”
Asked to respond to rumours that Keith Schembri has tried to submit his resignation to the Prime Minister and that Dr Muscat refused, he said “they are just rumours.”
Recently, PN Leader Simon Busuttil appealed to the Attorney General to publish reports related to Keith Schembri. Asked whether he would do the same, Dr Muscat said that he "cannot understand how someone could appeal to him (the Attorney General) to break the law, which states that a report, like that published yesterday, is a criminal offence. Secondly this all started with allegations against me and my wife a couple of weeks ago. He said that the PN Leader does not seem to be following this invention any more. We know that a Magistrate will investigate the claims brought forward by the PN Leader. I already said that if the Magistrate finds enough evidence for Keith Schembri to be accused then he would resign. If the PN Leader believes that there is a problem for Keith Schembri, then he has a bigger problem.”
The Prime Minister then referred to the CapitalOne inquiry and Beppe Fenech Adami. “If (Busuttil) believes there are problems with the Keith Schembri reports, I think he would better appeal for the Beppe Fenech Adami reports to be published, as if he uses the same measuring tape then Beppe Fenech Adami should not be allowed to stand for election.”