The Opposition leader appointed himself prosecutor, judge and jury, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening in a statement replying to a letter sent to him by Simon Busuttil earlier today, declining his offer to appoint a retired member of the judiciary to head a board of inquiry.

In his letter (see pdf link below), Dr Busuttil said that the board of inquiry the Prime Minister wanted to set up was completely useless because it could never do the Prime Minister’s job which was to ensure that Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia shouldered political responsibility.

The board is being set up to investigate Wednesday night’s incident during which Dr Mallia’s driver shot at a Briton’s car.

In a statement issued on Wednesday night the government said that warning shots in the air were fired but it later transpired that the shots were actually fired at the car.

Moreover, senior investigators told The Sunday Times of Malta that police officers “completely broke with procedure” when they moved the vehicle that had been shot at.

They felt that the way the crime scene was disturbed was “completely unacceptable”.

A low loader moved the car about 100 metres, parking on the same lane.

"You don't mess up the crime scene before the investigators have time to take note and assess it," a source told the newspaper.

Even inquiring Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras complained about the move, according to police sources.

This morning, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat accused Dr Busuttil of using the shooting incident on Wednesday night's to score political points.

But the Opposition said in the afternoon it was ironic that the Prime Minister was more focused on the leader of the Opposition than on removing Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia.

"The government is after the truth... The incident shocked a lot of people including myself because we cannot have such an overreaction without justification,” Dr Muscat said when speaking on One Radio this morning.

He said that as the leader of the Opposition continued to insist there was a cover-up, the government, which had nothing to hide, decided to set up a board of inquiry made up for three retired members of the judiciary and invited the leader of the Opposition to nominate one of the three to head the inquiry.

However, it seemed that the leader of the Opposition did not want this.
Although he had not yet received a formal reply from Simon Busuttil, in a tweet yesterday the leader of the Opposition told Dr Muscat to "stop 'shooting' from the hip and stand up to be counted. It's your mess, now deal w it. Be a Prime Minister for once".

Dr Muscat said this morning: “what we want is the truth… I am angry and disgusted and want to be sure that all the truth comes out.”

If the Opposition leader did not want to shoulder his responsibility to the people, he was not really running after the truth but trying to score political points, Dr Muscat said.

In his letter, Dr Busuttil referred to the Prime Minister’s call for him to shoulder responsibility and said the responsibility was Dr Muscat’s, as Prime Minister.

“This is because it is evident that there were attempts to hide the truth about the incident and because one can never allow a minister’s driver to shoot at another car without anyone shouldering responsibility. It is shocking how, four days after the incident, this driver has not yet been arraigned,” Dr Busuttil wrote.

He wrote that the board the Prime Minister wanted to set up was completely useless because it could never do the Prime Minister’s job, which was to see that the minister shouldered political responsibility for what happened and was removed.

No inquiry was needed for this to be done, Dr Busuttil said. Moreover, as the Prime Minister himself was admitting that the minister should be investigated, it was clear that his position was no longer tenable as cabinet would include a minister under investigation.

Dr Busuttil invited the Prime Minister to should his responsibility himself and not pass the buck. The Prime Minister, he said, was lengthening the process with one manoever after another to escape the logical and inevitable conclusion that Dr Mallia should be removed.

If this was not done, the Prime Minister would have shown weakness when faced with abuse of power, making him an accomplice, Dr Busuttil said.

This afternoon, the Nationalist Party said Dr Muscat knew the truth  because he was defending his minister and his (Dr Muscat's) communications official had prepared Dr Mallia to address the media on Thursday

Rather than attack the leader of the Opposition, Dr Muscat should see why Dr Mallia’s driver had not yet been arrested when everyone knew he fired shots in the direction of another man, the PN said.

It said he should see who gave the order for the driver not to be arrested even through he had committed such a grievous crime.

In his statement, Dr Muscat said Dr Busuttil made an allegation, decided upon it and issued the sentence.

He said he would not shirk his responsibility as Dr Busuttil had done but would shoulder it, as he was used to doing.

Dr Muscat said he was to go ahead and appoint the independent board as soon as possible to go into the allegations made by Dr Busuttil and establish the facts.

 

 

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