Government Minister Owen Bonnici reaffirmed his faith in Malta’s judiciary and spoke of his hope for magisterial inquiries to be concluded quickly for the truth about allegations to emerge, when asked by The Malta Independent whether he had any concerns about any of former Minister and MP Konrad Mizzi’s deals when he was in Cabinet.
This newsroom asked Bonnici – who is now Education Minister, but was Justice Minister when Joseph Muscat was still Prime Minister – whether he had any concerns or worries over deals made by Konrad Mizzi – who served in a number of ministries before being kicked out of the Labour Party’s parliamentary group two weeks ago.
“I think the question is over the decisions which Robert Abela took, which are public, and which have the support of the parliamentary group and executive”, Bonnici said.
“These decisions needed to be taken; Abela explained the decisions clearly and why they were taken, and I support the decision fully”, he added.
Mizzi was removed from the Labour Party’s parliamentary group in an Executive vote on 23 June, only days after a new scandal emerged concerning a wind-farm project in Montenegro which Enemalta had invested in, and payments to 17 Black – the Dubai-based company owned by alleged Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech.
When it was pointed out that it could be argued that the decision had come late, since this is not the first time that Mizzi was named in controversies, Bonnici again reiterated that he supports the Prime Minister’s decision.
Asked again whether he ever had any concerns on the scandals while he was part of Joseph Muscat’s cabinet, Bonnici said that what he can say is that a magisterial inquiry into every major allegation was opened.
“Our magistrates – whom I have great faith in –are investigating every major allegation. There wasn’t a case where no allegations were investigated”, he said.
He added that he hopes that the inquiries are concluded as soon as possible so that the facts can emerge.
When asked separately about allegations concerning the Attorney General Peter Grech, Bonnici noted that Grech had categorically denied Jason Azzopardi’s statement and reaffirmed that he has faith in the country’s judiciary.
He said that it is absolutely not true that the courts were ever instructed to slow down.
The questions came after the public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia asked former Head of Economic Crimes Unit Ian Abdilla whether he had received a note from Grech to “tread carefully” in investigating the Panama Papers.
PN MP Jason Azzopardi – who is also the Caruana Galizia family lawyer – along with various NGOs have called for Grech to resign as a result, took the question to indicate that Grech had warned the police to go slow on the investigations.