The Nationalist Party welcomed the news that justice is "finally beginning to be served in the corruption scandal linked to the company 17 Black."

It was referring to the news that former chief-of-staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi were charged by summons on Wednesday morning over alleged plans to receive money from Dubai company 17 Black owned by Yorgen Fenech, who has also been charged. All those accused pled not guilty.

"The fact that the Police have brought before the Court those who were the right and left hands of former Labour Prime Minister Joseph Muscat clearly shows how the Government and the Labour Party have made corruption a style of governance. At the same time, it is highly significant that these senior figures from the Labour Party and Government have been arraigned" together with Yorgen Fenech, the PN said in a statement signed by the party's Shadow Minister for Justice Karol Aquilina.

Instead of apologising to the people or hiding in shame, the Government and the Labour Party are actively continuing to protect the corrupt by attempting to strip citizens of their right to request a magisterial inquiry, the party said. "If it were up to Robert Abela, the developments that took place in Court today would never have happened."

"The Labour Party can no longer escape the reality that Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were not just any party members - one was the Chief of Staff at Castille, and the other was the Labour Party's Deputy Leader and a Minister entrusted with the Government's most lucrative multi-million euro contracts."

"The Labour Party can no longer escape the reality that the corruption-tainted contract at the heart of the case against Schembri, Mizzi, and others was the powerstation project, which the Labour Party itself aggressively pushed forward to win the 2013 general election."

The PN said that the Labour Party can no longer escape the reality that its MPs repeatedly expressed confidence in Schembri and Mizzi at every opportunity in Parliament and beyond, "even when faced with overwhelming evidence of their corrupt actions." 

"Today, no one in our country doubts that the Labour Party and Government were so consumed by corruption that, instead of fighting it as they were duty-bound to do, they supported and defended it wholeheartedly, even by actively paralysing the country's institutions."

The PN said that the prosecution in court is solely the result of the initiative taken by former Leader Simon Busuttil, MEP David Casa, and former MP Jason Azzopardi, who, along with the organisation Repubblika, requested that an inquiry be conducted.

"We also remind everyone that for years, the Labour Party tried to ridicule the evidence presented in Court by Simon Busuttil, even going as far as attempting to convince the public that the boxes were empty. Therefore, it is clear that the Labour Party and Government remain controlled by the corrupt and are governing and acting in their interest, rather than in the interest of justice and for the good of the Maltese and Gozitan people."