The Labour Party this afternoon described the current investigations at MITTS as “a most serious case of political and commercial spying” and said IT minister Austin Gatt was saying that comments were inappropriate at this stage, while making his own.

The party said that on September 23 the minister confirmed that a police investigation was under way, but said allegations about the case were “a pack of lies”.

Today Dr Gatt had confirmed that investigations were continuing, but also spoke of baseless speculation.

The MLP said such comments were unacceptable as they prejudiced the police investigations and gave the impression that the minister did not know what was happening. They also constituted unacceptable pressure on the police investigations.

It was very dangerous for the minister to deny facts which were supposedly still under investigation. Clearly, Dr Gatt was very uncomfortable that this serious case of political and commercial spying had come out in public. Were it up to him, everything would have been kept under wraps, the MLP said.