PN: Police, attorney general must prosecute Keith Schembri and Joseph Muscat

The police and attorney general must take steps to prosecute Keith Schembri and Joseph Muscat as soon as possible, the Nationalist Party said on Thursday.

In a statement, Aquilina said the Attorney General and Police Commissioner can no longer abdicate their responsibilities and must take action against Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri immediately.

“The sentence given yesterday by Judge Lawrence Mintoff clearly shows how Keith Schembri behaved during the police investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.”

On Wednesday, Judge Mintoff rejected a request by Yorgen Fenech to remove Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud from the investigation into the murder of Caruana Galizia. Fenech is being charged with masterminding the murder.

In the 155-page judgement, the court found that Keith Schembri, as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, had a conflict of interest when attending security briefings on the murder, as he never disclosed his “fraternal” friendship with Yorgen Fenech, even after Fenech became a suspect and his mobile phone was tapped by the Security Services.

Aquilina said the court sentence is indicative of how Keith Schembri abused of his position and worked against the national and security interests of Malta and Gozo.

“Therefore, Dr. Buttigieg [Attorney General] and Angelo Gafà [Police Commissioner] should wake up and do what they should have done a long time ago: prosecute Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri today before tomorrow.”

Aquilina also pointed out that Keith Schembri was subject to the Official Secrets Act, which states that the unauthorised disclosure of information relating to national security carries with a prison sentence.

“The Nationalist Party would like to remind that Keith Schembri testified under oath that everything he did when he was Chief of Staff was done with the permission of his Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat,” Aquilina noted.