Prime Minister Joseph Muscat cannot distance himself from wife Michelle Muscat in the Egrant saga, according to Nationalist Party Leader Simon Busuttil.
Last month, it was alleged that Michelle Muscat, the Prime Minister’s wife, is the beneficial owner of Egrant Inc, the third company named in the Panama Papers, and that she received large sums of money through a Pilatus Bank account. Joseph and Michelle Muscat deny the claims and have launched legal proceedings against Daphne Caruana Galizia, who made the claims.
In reply to a question by The Malta Independent as to whether there would be more pressure and even bigger political and moral responsibility on Dr Busuttil if the allegations turn out to be false, since Mrs Muscat is a non-political person, Busuttil said that the Prime Minister and his wife “are the same thing.”
“When we are saying there are allegations towards the wife of the Prime Minister has this company Egrant, this means that it is of the Prime Minister,” Dr Busuttil said. “The Prime Minister and his wife are the same thing. In marriage there is the community of acquests,” he explained.
The community of acquests is the common pot between spouses where what is acquired during the marriage is put into a common fund. “This means that he would gain from it as well,” he added.
Since the Egrant allegations came to light, Dr Busuttil and the PN media have used the allegations to their political advantage, even if the PN leader has refused to take responsibility for the claims.
At the first Forza Nazzjonali anti-corruption demonstration, he said that because of the allegations, Joseph Muscat should step down, a sentiment which was repeated throughout the past few weeks, also calling it a “conflict of interest”.
However, the Egrant allegations, which forced the PM to call an early election have, as of late been less frequently mentioned by Busuttil, who has instead shifted his political focus on claims regarding Keith Schembri, the PM’s Chief of Staff.
Soon after the Egrant allegations came out in April, PN Leader Simon Busuttil was quick to call a demonstration against corruption and used these allegations in a debate on the situation with the Prime Minister on national television, whilst the Nationalist Party media, Net TV, took it upon themselves to further investigate the scandal, including by door-stepping police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, Pilatus Bank directors and Michelle Muscat.
Speaking to this newspaper, Dr Busuttil stated that the allegations did “not come up from thin air, and neither from [himself], but from a whistleblower, who saw things with her own eyes.”
Shortly after the demonstration, a whistleblower from Pilatus Bank came forward and presented her evidence to the Magisterial Inquiry ordered by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on the night the allegations were announced. The woman then gave a full interview to The Malta Independent on Sunday and also appeared on INDEPTH.
Dr Busuttil then went to testify before the magistrate, stating that he had reports which showed that Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri was linked with the same bank documents which he has stated are part of the evidence of the whole inquiry.
Dr Busuttil originally went to testify before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja which lead into another inquiry by Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras on the alleged kickbacks between Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna and Keith Schembri.