Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil presented a court application to Magistrate Aaron Bugeja to be able to present the magistrate with documents showing that OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri paid former Allied Group managing director Adrian Hillman €650,000.

Asked why he chose to present the application before Magistrate Bugeja, who is conducting an inquiry into allegations the PM’s wife Michelle is the owner of a company opened in Panama, Dr Busuttil said that it is now up to the magistrate to decide what to do with the evidence Dr Busuttil intends to provide.

Dr Busuttil had already presented evidence that Mr Schembri took kickbacks from Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna before the magistrate on the Egrant saga, with the magistrate saying there was enough proof to warrant a full investigation but which did not fall within his remit. A separate, second inquiry is now being led by Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras.

Addressing journalists outside the law courts, Dr Busuttil said he will not be presenting the evidence to the public to protect the source who gave him the information.

"Without the guarantee of confidentiality, no one would have come to me with the information."

"I am doing things that the police commissioner, the attorney general,  and Joseph Muscat should have done. Why does the leader of the opposition have to do this? I am giving a voice to the people."

When pressed as to whether or not the public could be assured that what he was claiming was credible, without being privy to the same evidence as he was, Dr Busuttil said:

"There is no doubt. Magistrate Bugeja said there was enough evidence to order a criminal investigation. This is the biggest conformation that the evidence I have is correct. I would not have come forward without evidence."
Asked by The Malta Independent on the PM's claim that taxes had been paid in Malta, Dr Busuttil said that the Prime Minister has lost credibility and nobody believes what he says.

“Do you believe the Prime Minister? Because I don’t. He has lost all credibility especially when you see the complicated structures that were created to facilitate these payments. If Schembri wanted to pay Hillman regularly, why did he do through Gibraltar, then BVI, then there, then there, across the globe. If I wanted to pay you something, I would do it from here and not across the world."

Dr Busuttil said he had full confidence in the work of the magistrate but has no confidence in the Police Commissioner and the Police Force, who he says did nothing when they had this information over a year ago. 

On Wednesday, Dr Busuttil called a press conference in which he spoke about evidence he had that money was passed between Schembri and Hillman in what he described as a "textbook case of money laundering".