Updated 2.45pm
A threatening email sent to slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and mentioned by MEP Alfred Sant on Xarabank on Friday had been published by Ms Caruana Galizia herself on her blog, MEP David Casa said.
In a statement on Saturday, Mr Casa referred to Dr Sant's claim and said it was outrageous that the Labour Party had resorted to these cheap tricks "to justify the train wreck that is the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination".
During the programme which centred around a debate betwen Mr Casa and Dr Sant, Dr Sant accused former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and his "clique" of working overseas to undermine Malta's democratic institutions.
He recounted how a Dutch journalist had approached him in Brussels and showed him a threatening letter sent to Ms Caruana Galizia.
The letter was sent after 2015 and was therefore definitely not in the laptop of Ms Caruana Galizia's which police had seized and deposited in court, he said.
He said people like Dr Busuttil and Mr Casa had a strategy to "portray Malta as a mafia state with a corrupt government that does not respect the rule of law.
"This same clique is providing foreign journalists with information which puts the Maltese and Gozitan people in a bad light,” he said.
The laptop Ms Caruana Galizia was using at the time of her assassination has not been obtained by investigators, who have only deposited a computer she used until 2015 in court.
Ms Caruana Galizia's family say they do not know where her most recent laptop is, and would refuse to hand it over even if they did.
One of the men accused of murdering Ms Caruana Galizia, Alfred Degiorgio, on Friday filed a court application alleging that his right to a fair trial was being breached by police's failure to secure the laptop.
But Mr Casa said in a statement on Saturday afternoon that he discovered the identity of the journalist who met Dr Sant last week.
"I have become aware of the top secret threat that was shared with Alfred Sant. You don’t need Daphne’s laptop to know about it, Dr Sant. Any device with an internet connection will do."
It was from a De La Rue employee who had threatened to run the journalist over with his car.
Dr Sant said Dr Busuttil’s clique anti-patriotic behaviour was dangerous because it depicted all Maltese and Gozitans as corrupt and violent.
“They are giving a very bad reputation to Malta.”
He said this was negatively affecting economic activities in Malta such as financial services and igaming.
Dr Busuttil’s clique’s attitude was also increasing pressure against Malta and other EU states that wanted to safeguard taxation sovereignty, he said.
Dr Busuttil replied to Dr Sant's accusations on Twitter, writing that Dr Sant seemed to believe that he [Dr Busuttil] controlled the international media and MEPs. This, he said, made as much sense as when Dr Sant advised the Maltese to stay out of the EU.
So for Alfred Sant, I control international media like @nytimes @Reuters @guardian @lemondefr @France2tv @repubblica and @SZ. And MEPs in the @Europarl_EN including @AnaGomesMEP.
— Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) May 12, 2018
It makes as much sense as when he told us to stay out of the #EU.
https://t.co/jPT3IHOwHE
Casa challenges Sant on corruption, electricity
Mr Casa challenged Dr Sant to use his influence to ensure that corrupt politicians were removed from office.
“Not only have those that have been caught red handed remained in office, not only have they not been brought to justice, but the institutions that are meant to protect the Maltese people have been intentionally compromised to protect (Dr) Mizzi and (Mr) Schembri. This is what is bad for country and bad for the Maltese and Gozitan people," Mr Casa said.
He said: “We can no longer talk about suspicion of corruption. Now we have proof that transfers have been made to 17 Black,” he said in reference to the $1.6m transferred by a Azerbaijani national and the agents of the LNG tanker.
“We now also have the email were it is made clear that (Dr) Mizzi and (Mr) Schembri were planning to receive €150,000 every month from 17 Black – enough to purchase one apartment every month. It appears that enough for at least the first eight installments had been received”, Mr Casa said.
Mr Casa also said on the programme that every time the Maltese paid an electricity bill they were paying more than they had to because of Mr Mizzi.
“The inclusion of SOCAR in the supply chain for no legitimate reason is costing taxpayers tens of millions every year and that means we have to pay more for electricity because of Konrad Mizzi.”
Mr Casa made referred to SOCAR as one of the most corrupt energy companies on earth and challenged Dr Sant to identify one legitimate reason for Electrogas not opting to buy gas from Shell. Dr Sant did not reply, Mr Casa said.
It is criminals in power that are harming Malta- David Casa