The Nationalist MP under police investigation over the Mistra Valley case, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, insisted yesterday that he had not lied to the party or the people before the general election when he protested his innocence in the face of Labour's corruption allegations.

Along with a series of damning facts related to the case, a number of reports and statements have surfaced in the press in the past weeks suggesting that Dr Pullicino Orlando had lied or held back significant information from the party when Labour launched its attack.

When questioned on this point yesterday, however, he replied: "Absolutely not... not to the party, not to the people.

"I told the party about all the facts that had to do with me," he said, contradicting the notion that the party may have been unaware of facts such as the lease contract between Dr Pullicino Orlando and the businessman behind the proposed development on land belonging to the MP in the ecologically sensitive valley. Labour Leader Alfred Sant had pulled out the contract during the final debate with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi before the election.

Dr Gonzi was asked on PBS's current affairs programme Dissett right after the election if there were facts about the case that he had found out after the election or in the final days of the campaign.

His reply was: "What I found out was about the contract that was made public... I knew that there was some informal agreement, that was the description, but I didn't have all the details..."

The Mistra bombshell was only dropped on the Nationalist Party in the last week of campaigning, when Labour revealed that an outline development permit had been granted for a discotheque on Dr Pullicino's land. This forced the latter to issue instructions that the application for the final permit be withdrawn.

High-level officials of the party have since gone on record saying that the debacle almost cost them the election.

Yesterday, Dr Pullicino Orlando would not answer any further questions on the case, saying, as he had done when asked for his comments earlier this week, that he did not want to influence pending police investigations in any way and that he would give his full version of facts after the case is closed.

He insisted, however, that "there is absolutely no corruption on my part and I never exerted any undue pressure on any of the DCC board members".

The latter comment refers to a revelation, made by The Sunday Times, that members on the board that approved the outline application for the project, as well as government officials interrogated by the police, had said in their sworn statements that the young MP had been contacting them about the application, asking them to "keep an eye" on it.

Last week the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's auditor issued a damning report about the process that led to the approval of the application, which even implicated the Malta Tourism Authority.

A consultant to the tourism authority, which submitted a strategic plan favouring the development, was described as "biased" by the auditor.

It turned out that he produced a similarly favourable report for the applicant. The consultant, George Micallef, resigned his post on the day the audit report was published even as he protested his innocence.

Different press reports have claimed that the police may arraign people in connection with the case in the coming weeks.