Updated with new video • Muscat to wait for inquiry into shooting incident

Prime Minister says Manuel Mallia was neither on site nor did he give any instructions to driver

Joseph Muscat said he will wait for the outcome of a magisterial inquiry to see who will bear political responsibility on the shooting incident of Wednesday
Joseph Muscat said he will wait for the outcome of a magisterial inquiry to see who will bear political responsibility on the shooting incident of Wednesday

The Prime Minister is intent on waiting for the outcome of a magisterial inquiry to determine whether any responsibility will have to be borne by his home affairs minister, Manuel Mallia.

In comments to the press shortly after launching Malta's hosting of the 2015 CHOGM, Muscat also explained that the initial version of events relayed to the independent media on Wednesday evening was based on the first reports as they were being communicated shortly after the incident.

On Wednesday night, Mallia’s security driver – a police constable – gave chase to a car and shot at the moving vehicle after it hit the stationary ministerial car and ran off. The constable, Paul Sheehan, has been since suspended from driving and police duties.

Muscat to wait for outcome of magisterial inquiry

The first government statement on the incident claimed that the shots had been warning shots. "The Opposition is insisting that this was some cover-up - a cover-up does not take place under the gaze of cameras and the media. Minister Mallia made one statement, the day after, where he corrected what happened the prior evening. The media was there to see: the initial government statement was issued as early as possible, and one important detail happened to be incorrect," Muscat told the press.

Earlier in the morning at 9:50am, Muscat was questioned by MaltaToday outside the TVM Creativity Hub before an interview on Radju Malta. “There is a magisterial inquiry taking place and if the inquiry shows that Mallia has any political responsibility to shoulder, of being involved in the case – which so far does not result to me – or that he was on site or giving instructions on the site of the incident, then there is responsibility to be carried.”

Mallia was at the Floriana police headquarters at the time of the incident of Wednesday evening, which started in Gzira when Scotsman Stephen Morrison Smith allegedly hit the stationary minister's vehicle; Sheehan gave chase, was said to have fired at the car, before Smith was finally stopped by police and arrested for driving under the influence.

The Opposition however has accused Mallia of issuing a statement at the time of the incident, stating that two warning shots were fired in the air, when in fact there are at least two bullets lodged in the back of Smith’s Opel Insigna vehicle. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has called on the Prime Minister to sack Mallia, and accused him of being weak in the face of the facts of the incident.

“So far it looks like it was a disproportionate action by a member of the police force who will be censured as he should be,” Muscat said when asked by MaltaToday whether Mallia should be suspended from the Cabinet pending the outcome of the magisterial inquiry.

But the prime minister also made mention of the bribery of Noel Borg Hedley, formerly the private secretary to finance minister Tonio Fenech, who was found guilty in a court of law of having solicited bribes from construction firm JPM Bros.

“In the past the government would say that [Borg Hedley] was acting on his own initiative. I won’t do the same thing: in this case, the driver was acting on his own and the minister was not informed and did not give him any instructions. If the inquiry shows that the minister either gave instructions, then political responsibility will have to be carried.”