Joe Mizzi, who served as Energy Minister for almost three years, told The Malta Independent on Sunday that he knew "absolutely nothing" about the situation regarding Enemalta's purchase of the Montenegro wind-farm project.
Joe Mizzi served as Energy Minister from after the June 2017 general election right up until Joseph Muscat's resignation from Prime Minister and his successor Robert Abela's Cabinet reshuffle last January, which left Mizzi as a backbencher.
The Mozura wind park deal hit the headlines again last week after it emerged that 17 Black - the company belonging to alleged Daphne murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech - had made a profit of €4.6 million after lending money to the company that eventually sold the wind farm to Enemalta's consortium. The revelation led to the sacking of Konrad Mizzi from the Labour Parliamentary Group. Mizzi was Energy Minister at the time the deal was brokered.
Joe Mizzi said that he had gone to Montenegro to visit the site, but only because there were technical and logistical issues for construction on the project to start.
Joe Mizzi said that when he had become Energy Minister, the project had not started and that when this became clear to him he had gone to meet with the Montenegrin government to see what the problems were and see how they would be ironed out.
However, Joe Mizzi assured that he knew nothing about what happened before he was in office, when the deal was signed.