It’s been one month already since the damning ‘17 Black’ evidence was exposed by the international media working on the Daphne Project.

So it begs the question, why has no action been taken? Let us recall just how damning these revelations were.

The evidence consists of an email sent on behalf of Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi by Karl Cini to Mossack Fonseca in December 2015.  In this email, Cini provides details of how Schembri and Mizzi would be receiving monthly payments to the tune of $150,000 from a Dubai company called 17 Black, with a target of $2,000,000 in the first year.

Cini tries to explain this extraordinary flow of monthly revenue into Schembri and Mizzi’s pockets by falsely claiming that they have a business together in areas ranging from recycling to remote gaming and from infrastructure to fisheries. Crucially, he adds that they already have a ‘client’ who will pay them $150,000 every month – it’s 17 Black.

Let us extract the damning facts out of this email. Firstly, they are engaging in business activities when they are in public office. Secondly, they are in a joint business venture together. Thirdly, they are planning to receive huge sums of money that cannot be explained by their public office.

Fourthly, they are planning to operate away from the scrutiny of the Maltese authorities.  Finally, their ‘business operations’ are fictitious because, three years on, they still do not exist. They were no more than a cover-up to explain the monthly flow of huge sums of money.

Some apologists may say that this was just a plan and it does not mean that it actually happened.  It did not need to happen. Because even an attempted crime is punishable at law and ought to be investigated and duly prosecuted.

There’s more.  The Daphne Project also revealed that 17 Black itself had received payments topping $1,500,000 which were described by the US authorities as money laundering transactions. Shockingly, these payments came from none other than the local agent of the LNG tanker and from a Seychelles company owned by someone from Azerbaijan.

So there is now a link between the new power station and the $150,000 monthly payments that Schembri and Mizzi were due to receive.

Damning evidence has been revealed and yet, far from carrying political and criminal responsibility, the prime suspects are still running our country

Incredibly, Schembri and Mizzi claimed that they do not know who owns 17 Black from which they were planning to net $150,000 a month. They think they can fool all the people all the time.

You might expect that these sort of revelations which are documented in an email would lead to the immediate dismissal of Schembri and Mizzi. And with them, the resignation of the Prime Minister himself, because he has been defending them for two years. You might also expect that criminal investigations would have immediately been launched by the Police as well as the Attorney General and the FIAU.

Nothing happened.  That’s because not only is Joseph Muscat flatly refusing to take action, but he is also blocking our institutions from doing so. That is why the problem in Malta today is not just one of corruption, but a deeper problem of the rule of law.

It is precisely because no action was taken on these latest revelations that, along with my colleague David Casa, I went to court to ask for a criminal inquiry to be opened.  Last Monday, the court decided that, whereas there are indeed grounds for Schembri and Mizzi to be criminally investigated, this should be done as part of an ongoing inquiry, rather than a new one.

There is indeed another inquiry on the Panama Papers revelations that was ordered last summer by another magistrate on my request. This means that there are now two magistrates, not one, who feel that Schembri and Mizzi should be subject to criminal investigation.

But this first inquiry has never even taken off because Joseph Muscat and his bedfellows are resisting it tooth and nail. In fact, they appealed the decision to open it and by some strange coincidence, their appeal ended up in front of a judge who is married to a Labour MEP. I have since been struggling in the Constitutional Court to have this judge removed from the case, so that the inquiry can finally start.

This is the sorry state of justice and the rule of law in our country today. Damning evidence has been revealed and yet, far from carrying political and criminal responsibility, the prime suspects are still running our country.

Make no mistake. This total impunity is causing incalculable damage to our country. Along with many others, I for one, have worked too hard to earn our country’s reputation to let it go down the drain because of the greed of a few people.

We need to stop this rot before it is too late.

Simon Busuttil MP is the former leader of the Nationalist Party.