Prime Minister Robert Abela has refused to say whether he knew from beforehand about the police raid on Joseph Muscat’s home.

The former PM’s Burmarrad home was raided by police on Wednesday morning, in connection with a magisterial inquiry that is looking into the hospitals privatisation deal.

Muscat described the raid as “theatrical” and said it seemed to have been planned to humiliate him. He also said that the police had taken his mobile phone, as well as the phones belonging to his wife and 14-year-old daughters.

PN Leader Bernard Grech alleged yesterday that the police raid “suited Abela’s electoral needs,” and that Muscat hinted that it was the PM who ordered the raid to humiliate him. He also said Muscat had “threatened” Abela in a video message uploaded on Wednesday afternoon.

Questioned by journalists outside his office on Thursday, the PM would not say whether he had known about the raid from before.

“You should ask Jason Azzopardi,” he told reporters. Last Sunday, the PN MP hinted that something was afoot in a social media post on why the government was refusing to back a proposal for to establish an inquiring magistrate on corruption. “You will soon find out why,” he said.

Abela denied having received threats from Muscat and also insisted he was not threatening the courts. This was in reference to comments he gave on Wednesday evening, where he said the institutions must return the trust placed in them by the government.

He said that, as head of the executive branch, he had a duty to speak up whenever he felt that there is an element of disproportionality between the search for truth and the methods used. He referred specifically to the confiscation of Muscat’s daughters’ phones.

Abela said the government’s consistent message has always been that no one was above the law, but certain people should not be treated in a more rigorous way because of the post they once held.

Asked when he had found out about the search, Abela said journalist should ask Azzopardi, “who made it clear on Sunday that he knew what was going to happen.” The PN MP, Abela said, does not have a constitutional role that allows him to know such things.

Asked if he feels the leak should be investigated, Abela told journalists to direct that question to Joseph Muscat.