The intense fight for the removal of former Attorney General Peter Grech from his post is now bearing fruit, PN leader Adrian Delia said in reaction to news of the arrest of Keith Schembri.
Schembri, the long-time Chief of Staff to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning after his assets and those of his companies were frozen over suspicions of money laundering. Nexia BT duo Brian Tonna and Karl Cini are also under arrest.
Their arrest is related to a recently concluded inquiry into kickbacks which Schembri allegedly took from the sale of Maltese passports.
All those who robbed the country need to pay for their behaviour, Delia said in a statement.
Delia said that now that the media is reporting that Keith Schembri has been arrested in connection with bribery allegations from the sale of passports, “the intense fight for the removal of the Attorney General, who was corrupt and who was an obstacle to the truth emerging, is bearing fruit.”
He noted that he was always against the sale of passports and that the PN has been highlighting the abuses related to this scheme for years.
Read more: Schembri won't participate in interrogation until inquiry report published - lawyers
He said that the resignation of former Attorney General Peter Grech was a clear confirmation of how right the PN was throughout recent years, noting that it was evident that, much like former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, he had ended up as a puppet of the Labour Government which had snatched control of the country’s institutions in order to do everything for investigations not to be conducted and for the truth not to emerge.
Grech resigned from the post of Attorney General last month, subsequently being replaced by Victoria Buttigieg, who up until then was State Advocate.
“In my fight against corruption, I won in order to get a copy of the Egrant report, a report which the former Attorney General did everything to keep locked away in a drawer. From this report, it was clear that people like Nexia BT’s Karl Cini had to be investigated. This is why last January I filed a report with the police for Karl Cini to be investigated immediately. Here we were right too”, the Opposition Leader said.
He said the both before he came out for politics and also during the years he was leader he had said that the passport selling scheme needs to be stopped immediately, as it endangers the country’s reputation.
“This so we can repair the damage done by the Labour Government, which is threatening thousands of jobs of professionals and youths”, he said.
“We are now expecting that all those responsible for all the corruption which was done behind people’s backs to face justice today before tomorrow. The Maltese people are fed up of words, of things being hidden, and of lies.
He said that these are delicate moments for the truth to come out, and appealed once again to those people in power, including the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner to take the necessary decisions in order to safeguard the country’s interests without looking at anyone’s faces and without fear or favour.
He said that in doing their duty, these people will always find the support of the PN, which will continue to work for the whole truth to emerge and for justice to be done so that our reputation can be restored.
“The PN remains determined that, in the best interest of the people, it will work so that the country can come out of the reputation crisis that the Labour government has put it in, especially before tests which Malta still has to go through, such as Moneyval, so that people’s jobs can continue to be safeguarded”, the statement concluded.