Former police minister Manuel Mallia has threatened controversial author Mark Camilleri with libel over an upcoming publication that promises to uncover major government scandals.

Camilleri, formerly chairman of the National Book Council, has already started selling the e-book – ‘A Rent Seeker’s Paradise -  and plans to use the funds to print the book for the mass market in late October.

In a Facebook post earlier this week, Camilleri said the book will tell the story of how political figures such as Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi “abetted and covered for Darren Debono, a Maltese oil smuggler indicted by the United States government.”

He said that, through Darren Debono, “the Maltese government refuelled a foreign warship in foreign waters while officially refusing to allow it to refuel on Maltese territory.”

He also claimed that Manuel Mallia “also participated in the abetting and covering up of the money laundering in the illegal oil smuggling business.”

Camilleri further claimed that Muscat was “aware in advance of the plan to murder Daphne Caruana Galizia,” promising to give “detailed explanations” in his book.

“I also tell the story of what happened in the government and the Labour Party during the November/December 2019 political crisis and after the Panama Papers scandal in 2016. I explain how the bureaucracy and the civil service were essential to executing the corruption of Joseph Muscat’s government.”

Camilleri said that what he is doing is “completely legal” and he is fully cooperating with and sharing his information with the police.

Camilleri, formerly a government executive and a Labour Party delegate, says he gave up his positions, including an offer to work in the diplomatic service, “in order to be able to keep speaking against what I deemed as great injustice and corruption.”

On Monday evening, Camilleri revealed that the former police minister had threatened to sue him for libel. He published a screenshot of an email he received from the former minister, in which Mallia said the allegations made against him are “false, baseless and unfounded.” Mallia requested that Camilleri withdraw these allegations.

But in a reply to the former minister’s email, Camilleri thanked Mallia for his “interest” and advised him to go ahead with any legal action he plans to take. “The book has already been published online and there is no going back now,” he told Mallia. He added that he has already sold six copies of the book.