Vincent Muscat has reportedly been granted a presidential pardon to help investigations into the unsolved 2015 murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, according to the Times of Malta.

The news emerged after Muscat pleaded guilty to his role in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and after the reported arrest of three men suspected of having supplied the bomb which killed the journalist.

The Times of Malta report that Muscat is understood to be able to shed light on who was behind the killing of Carmel Chircop and how the murder plot was executed.

The pardon was reportedly approved by Cabinet on Monday.

Chircop was shot dead in a garage complex in Birkirkara on 8 October 2015.

A partner of Dingli and Dingli Associates and also the president of the Duke of Connaught Band Club of Birkirkara, he was shot at least twice in the upper body in his own garage early in the morning.

The Malta Independent on Sunday had reported back in 2015 that police were probing Chircop's property dealings amongst other things in the course of their investigations.

Last year, MaltaToday revealed that Chircop had loaned €750,000 to the More Supermarket directors in 2014. Among the three people who appeared on the contract with Chircop were Ryan Schembri and Adrian Agius.

More Supermarket went belly up a year after the loan agreement and Schembri eloped from the country, leaving a trail of debts behind him. Schembri is the cousin of former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

The case has remained unsolved since.