The Home Affairs Ministry this evening denied that the minister's driver, Paul Sheehan was part of the minister's electoral campaign team.

This, the ministry said, could be confirmed by the people who were part of the team.

Mr Sheehan  is facing attempted murder charges for shooting on an unarmed man in a car, ostensibly over a minor traffic accident. He acted as the minister’s canvasser during the general election, according to sources.

The sources said Mr Sheehan, who is from Gzira – the minister’s home district – accompanied Dr Mallia on house visits and attended several campaign events. This contradicts claims made by Dr Mallia that he was not close to Mr Sheehan and that the driver had been assigned to him by the police force, rather than being hand-picked as staff in those positions normally are.

The claim was first revealed by the Nationalist Party newspaper in-Nazzjon. Sources who spoke to Times of Malta confirmed the information.

Speaking at a press conference the day after the incident, Dr Mallia had said that some months after the election, his driver left and suggested to him that he employ Mr Sheehan as his replacement. He clearly indicated that he did not know Mr Sheehan before this time.

The Home Affairs Ministry has so far not confirmed or denied this latest information.

The development comes as a panel of former judges continues to hear witnesses today into the incident which, on Wednesday November 19 saw Mr Sheehan fire two shots at Stephen Morrison Smith, a British national who has lived in Malta most of his life.

According to the official version, Mr Sheehan chased Mr Smith after the Scottish man,  clipped the mirror of the ministerial Mercedes Benz, that was parked in Gzira and sped off. A car chase followed and Mr Sheehan allegedly caught up with him in a residential road at the back of the National Pool at Tal Qroqq.

At that point, he emerged from the vehicle wielding a gun and Mr Smith took off again. At this point, he fired at him, twice. At this time , Mr Sheehan was on the line with the police headquarters and in a recording could be heard saying “I’m going to shoot him”, followed by the sound of two loud bangs.

The story has become particularly politically charged after it became clear that the original version given in a government statement on the night of the incident, claiming that Mr Sheehan fired shots in the air, was wrong because both bullets hit the car.

The government has claimed it released the information it had been given by the police at the time of the incident. However, the Opposition has pressed the line that there was in fact an attempt to cover up the incident.

The government reacted by appointing a panel of three judges to look into the cover up claims, on top of an ongoing magisterial inquiry led by Natasha Galea Sciberras.

PN: MALLIA SHOULD BE REMOVED EVEN JUST ON THIS 'LIE'

In a reaction early this afternoon, PN General Secretary Chris Said said that Dr Mallia had lied or been misleading about not knowing Mr Sheehan before he became his driver.

The fact that Mr Sheehan had accompanied by Dr Mallia in pre-election campaigning could be easily verified by many people and the prime minister should there remove Dr Mallia just on this lie, let alone the rest of the cover-up which followed the shooting on November 19.

Dr Said asked the prime minister to say at what time Dr Mallia phoned Mr Sheehan after the shooting, what instructions he gave him, and whether a recording of the phone call existed. Would he publish it?

It could be, Dr Said said, that the Prime Minister was defending Dr Mallia because the prime minister’s own head of communications, Kurt Farrugia, had issued the statement which spoke of shots having been fired ‘in the air’. Mr Farrugia had also attended the press conference with Dr Mallia on the following day. Why had that happened?

The PN, Dr Said said, would continue to insist that all those involved should shoulder their political responsibility, something which could not be apportioned by the Board of Inquiry which the prime minister had appointed.

Opposition Home Affairs spokesman Jason Azzopardi said this case was turning out to be a 'saga of pathological lies'.

He asked the prime minister to say what communication had been exchanged between him and communications chief Kurt Farrugia and between Mr Farrugia and the Acting Police Commissioner.

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