Former economy minister Chris Cardona was questioned by police after recent allegations that he was linked to the murders of Daphne Caruana Galizia and lawyer Carmel Chircop, Times of Malta reports.
Cardona confirmed with the newspaper that he was taken in for questioning on Saturday. The Times’ sources said Cardona has denied any involvement in both cases.
Vince Muscat has claimed that Cardona was behind an approach to the Degiorgio brothers in 2015, settling on a price of €150,000 to kill the journalist. The plan was later abandoned.
He also told investigators that, based on information given to him by Alfred Degiorgio, Cardona was “aware” of the 2017 plot.
He also said he had dropped off Degiorgio at Cardona’s ministry in the summer of 2017.
The Times said the police were treating Muscat’s claims with caution. Cardona denied all the allegations, describing them as “pure evil fiction.”
Muscat has was last week jailed 15 years after admitting his role in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder. He was also granted pardon in connection with the 2015 murder of Carmel Chircop and is said to be helping the police in other gangland murder investigations.
Cardona told the newspaper he was questioned but said he was not on police bail and was not cautioned by the police.
The former minister had already been questioned by police in 2019 when suspected mastermind Yorgen Fenech had named him as a conspirator. Fenech later retracted the claim, saying he had been asked to implicate the minister by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.