Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi said this afternoon that his lawyers are looking into the ruling given by Magistrate Doreen Clarke on Monday, effectively not ruling out appealing her decisions.

On Monday, Magistrate Clarke ruled that documents presented in court could indicate that a crime had taken place. The court ordered that the evidence presented could be passed on to another magistrate, Charmaine Galea, to form part of the inquiry into the ownership of a Dubai company named 17 Black.

Evidence regarding Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri, Nexia BT's Brian Tonna and Karl Cini will now form part of this inquiry.

Replying to questions by the media, Mizzi said that his lawyers are analysing Magistrate Clarke's decree and he will act accordingly.

But Mizzi said that what happened on Monday did not add anything new to the situation, and he did not see any reason why he should step down pending the outcome of the inquiry.

"The Magistrate at no time said that there was some form of guilt by us or that there was particular evidence. All the decree said was that the role is to preserve certain documents and referred them to the already ongoing inquiry. The Spin Busuttil gave was very different."

He said that he has already submitted himself to an audit in the past on the Panama Papers issues, and criticised a number of PN members for not doing them same when questions about them arose.

"People said it was impossible to address the out of stock medicines, to reduce energy bills, to turn Air Malta around, but we did, and we have a lot more to do. My answer is no (I will not resign), I will keep working to make the lives of the Maltese and Gozitans better."

He said that the magistrate said that a number of documents were not admissible.

He said that all there is going is an inquiry into 17 black and said that he has nothing to do with 17 Black. "I assure you we won't have problems."

Video by Eva Krins