Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has denied the claims made by Yorgen Fenech in his police statement, releasing a statement which points towards contradictions between Fenech’s statement and what actually happened.

Muscat’s statement comes after the compilation of evidence into Fenech adjourned for another day, with the police being cross-examined on Thursday and new details about the statements Fenech made to police upon his arrest being revealed.

In his statement, Muscat said that he was commenting so that there are no “mistaken interpretations” over what was said in court on Thursday during the compilation.

He said that he had already made some of these statements in public, and other points with the Police.

Muscat said that “while it is clear that I was in no way advised about this murder from beforehand, I never discussed it with the person who is the alleged mastermind.”

He referred to the recordings presented in evidence in the case, when the alleged mastermind himself – Yorgen Fenech – says that it would be “crazy” if he had to speak to him. 

He also noted that the police has in its possession a conversation which indicates that the day after they were supposed to have spoken about the case, Fenech sent him a message where he apologised for not speaking to him as he had a lot of people around him.

“This contradicts what was said in the statement”, Muscat said, referring to Fenech’s statement to police.

Besides this, he said, while public and corroborated information shows that no meeting happened between him and Fenech, it was alleged that he had given the alleged mastermind information about raids which were going to be done in the summer.

“This is impossible because, as it was shown from the police’s own testimony, discussions and thoughts on any raids where done quite a while after the period when the alleged meeting was said to have taken place”, he said.

“Therefore, I could never give information about a thought that not only was not communicated to me, but which had not even been considered by police. This also contradicts what was said in the statement”, he added.

He said that today it was confirmed that Fenech’s statement was given after a request for a pardon was refused and after he was threatened that he would be dragged through the mud if he did not recommend Fenech for a pardon.

He said that he had immediately said this publicly and testified it in front of the Magistrate off his own volition.

He concluded that as Prime Minister he always did his duty, and that this resulted in there being important developments in this major case, contrary to major murders which happened in the past.