The third Panama company belonged to someone who was far more important than Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri because the name of its owner was not mentioned in writing, PN leader Simon Busuttil said this evening.

Speaking on TVM’s programme Dissett, Dr Busuttil said that e-mails leaked showed that what Nexia BT owner Brian Tonna was saying that the company was his was not true.

For his partner Karl Cini had said in an email that the owner would not be Nexia BT, with BT standing for Brian Tonna. He had said that the owner would be an individual.

This individual’s name was not given in writing. The only reason behind this was that this was someone who was much more important than Mr Schembri and Dr Mizzi.

Dr Busuttil said that Mr Tonna’s obligation had been to report the minister when he went to him to seek to set up a company in Panama and not to cover for him.

Dr Busuttil said that the conclusions reached by the Pana Committee during its visit to Malta was grievous.

It found that everything indicated that there was a case of money laundering.

“This was more than I expected,” Dr Busuttil said.

He reiterated that had he been Prime Minister, Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri would have been dismissed a year ago. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had been elected with a majority which gave him the opportunity to do what no government before him had done. But he lost that chance.

Not only that, he had promised a fight against corruption but when he was promising that, preparations were already underway for the opening of secret companies in Panama. This was the tragedy the country was facing,  Dr Busuttil said.

Dr Busuttil also criticised the police commissioner who he described as “a government’s puppet”.

“I would have liked Malta to have a police commissioner who did his job rather than defend the Prime Minister,” he said adding that the commissioner was holding back on an investigation to defend Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri.

He reiterated that, as Prime Minister, he would order an investigation in everything Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri were involved in.

He also said that the Police Commissioner would be dismissed 'without notice' as soon as the Nationalist government took over.

Toni Bezzina

Asked what action he had taken against Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina, who was forced to withdraw a planning application outside a development zone in Rabat, in the wake of the backlash caused by a story published in Labour’s newspaper Kullħadd. Dr Busuttil said Mr Bezzina’s application was regular, legal and according to current policies.

But in spite of this, he had asked Mr Bezzina to withdraw the application, and he did.

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