The prime minister claims to have no details about a block of apartments being built on a Sliema site that should have been returned to the government following a court decision.

“I have no details on this case. I read the story you are referring to but till this morning I had no details on the matter. It was this government which took the matter to court and shouldered full political responsibility for that,” he said when questioned during a press conference at Auberge de Castille.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported that Marco Gaffarena is developing a block of apartments on a site he had been ordered by a court to return to the government.

The site in question is a shop situated at 73, Manuel Dimech Street, Sliema. It was one of several government properties found to have been illegally bartered in a deal with Mr Gaffarena, in return for which he gave the government half a palazzo in Valletta’s Old Mint Street.

The deal was subsequently struck down by the court, which ordered that Mr Gaffarena return all government property that he had acquired under the arrangement.

However, an investigation carried out by The Sunday Times of Malta over the past few weeks established that the shop now forms part of a mega development being carried out by Mr Gaffarena to turn it and an old townhouse into a block of luxury apartments.

According to plans approved by the Planning Authority and seen by the newspaper, there will be at least two bedrooms where the shop now stands. Works were underway on the site when the Times of Malta paid a visit some days ago.

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