Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this evening that it was news to him that the police were investigating minister Konrad Mizzi, and he asked what progress the investigation had made.

Dr Busuttil was reacting in Parliament on a point of order after Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said the police investigated all cases mentioned by the opposition. 

The issue came up during the winding up of the debate on a bill to reform the way the police force is administered. 

The cases mentioned by the Opposition had included corruption allegations involving a canvasser of Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, allegations against Central Bank Deputy Governor Alfred Mifsud, the Gaffarena property expropriation,  the granting of a petrol station permit to Mr Gaffarena, the granting of visas for travel from Algeria, the granting of medical visas to Libyans, Sai Mizzi’s employment with Malta Enterprise and various cases pertaining to the Panama Papers.

Asked whether such cases were being investigated, Mr Abela said all cases brought to the attention of the Police Corps were under investigation. He said it would be unprofessional to comment on ongoing cases.

Dr Busuttil said this was the first time that the minister was confirming that Konrad Mizzi was being investigated by the police over his Panama company. This, he said, was 'exclusive news' and he asked about progress in the investigation, a year after the scandal broke. 

Mr Abela said he was pointing out another ongoing investigation that the Leader of the Opposition had failed to mention, namely the investigation into Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi’s involvement in the Löwenbräu brewery land transfer.

Mr Abela added that the only investigation that had, to his knowledge, been suspended for political reasons was that into allegations of money laundering by Capital One Investment Group. He said that this investigation had been stopped right before the elections when the name of Beppe Fenech Adami, then-parliamentary assistant for Home Affairs, had cropped up, as he was a director of Baltimore Fiduciary, the Maltese company which had handled CapitalOne’s affairs locally.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.