Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said that he will not ditch his former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri.

During an interview with The Times of Malta, the former Prime Minister who resigned in disgrace back in 2019, was asked whether, knowing what he knows today, he would still thank Schembri for his service.

Muscat said that Schembri did several good things and that he will allow justice to take its course.

"I will definitely not ditch a person I know in this situation, knowing what he is going through. I might be in the wrong, I might be in the right. But I will definitely not ditch him."

Muscat said in the interview that he and Schembri had cut contact for a while, but when he heard about Schembri's health, he reconnected. He would not say whether he had cut contact because he felt Schembri betrayed him.

During the interview he was also asked whether he had a whiff of corruption on issues like 17 Black, Macbridge and others. He said that he was always given an explanation when he asked. "Whether I was naïve, time will tell. But things aren't always black and white. I believe my judgement of most people was correct. But there might have been others I wasn't correct about. But I will not be the one who will dump Keith Schembri, for example, because he's the flavour of the month, especially considering what he's going through. I'm not that type of person. Even the worst of decisions are often driven with good intentions."