Updated at 6pm: Adds government statement
The Nationalist Party has deplored the issue of an arrest warrant against the former Pilatus Bank employee who was whistleblower in the Egrant allegations against the prime minister and his wife.
The shadow minister for justice, Jason Azzopardi, said in a statement this contrasted sharply with government boasting of having enacted a law to protect whistleblowers.
A court was told yesterday that the Malta Police have no information on the whereabouts of Maria Efimova. The arrest warrants were issued after she did not turn up for court proceedings.
In August, the Court had ordered her name to be placed on the wanted list after she repeatedly failed to turn up for a court sitting.
The woman is the subject of at least two criminal proceedings. She is accused of defrauding Pilatus Bank and having made false accusations against Superintendent Denis Theuma and inspectors Jonathan Ferris and Lara Butters.
READ: European, international arrest warrants issued against Russian whistleblower
Dr Azzopardi said the PN could not tolerate a situation where the whistleblower and her family were intimidated by Pilatus Bank, about whose operations, concerns had been expressed by the European Parliament and its Pana Committee.
"There is no longer any doubt that that under a Muscat government, the law is not equal to everyone," Dr Azzopardi said.
What had happened in the Russian whistleblower's case was in stark contrast to how the government acted with the so-called whistleblower in the Giovanna Debono case, who was not only offered protection, but was also granted contracts worth thousands of euro.
Dr Azzopardi said the government should immediately offer protection who whistle blower who revealed the Egrant information.
Government statement
In a statement this afternoon, the government said that as per the rule of law, an arrest warrant was issued by a court of law, independently from any other institution.
In the case of Maria Efimova, the Maltese law courts issued European and international arrest warrants after she repeatedly failed to appear in criminal proceedings against her by the police in two separate cases unrelated to any allegations she made against politicians.
"The Opposition’s latest political spin on Ms Efimova, who has repeatedly refused to appear in court proceedings in cases unrelated to politics and brought before her allegations surfaced, can only be seen as an attack on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law," the government said.