'Inquiry absolved me of any cover-up,' Mallia says on refusal to resign

Disgraced home affairs minister Manuel Mallia refused to resign because the inquiry "found that I wasn't involved in any cover-up".

In a letter penned by Mallia and tabled in parliament by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the former minister insisted that he "never read" the statement and that he never had anything to do with the drafting of the statement.

Mallia was sacked by Muscat after an independent board of inquiry found that, even though Mallia was not involved in any political cover-up, he however knew of the statement and asked that it does not get amended on that same night. According to the inquiry, he was duty-bound to take immediate steps to rectify the incorrect version later on in the night of 19 November; “he has to carry the responsibility for the incorrect official statement his ministry issued.”

Even with the board of the inquiry, Mallia denied seeing the statement. In a confrontation with the former chief of police and Kurt Farrugia, Ray Zammit insisted that he had shown the statement to Mallia.

Manuel Mallia did not attend this evening's sitting "due to health reasons".

Giving his version of events, Mallia said that he first heard of the incident during a dinner at the police headquarters. "I was sitting down at the table with my wife when we were told that shots had been fired at my ministerial car. Because our four-year-old daughter had been with Paul Sheehan, the news shocked us and my first concern and worry was about our daughter."

Mallia insisted that he never read the statement, nor did he have anything to do with its drafting: "This fact could have easily been corroborated by at least two persons who, even though I asked them to confirm this, they didn't testify or were not asked to testify."

The former minister said it was common for statements to be issued from his ministry without him reading them first: "This used to happen when the facts had to be determined by others or when I held no control over the veracity of the facts."

Mallia said that the recordings were carried out from the depot's control room. He said that the control room is situated on the second floor and that he was never present on this floor and therefore "I could have never been present" when Ray Zammit was in contact with Kurt Farrugia and Paul Sheehan during three-way conversation.

The former minister also said that he didn't exactly remember that his spokeswoman, Ramona Attard, had called him at home and "only confirmed it because I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and because she said that she had been with Kurt Farrugia at the time".

"The same Attard says that she told me over the phone that there was a mistake in the statement and a correction should be issued. This fact alone shows that at no point was I planning a cover-up. Because if I were, I would have issued a correction immediately because my goal would not have been reached.

"I decided to wait for the following morning because I wanted to have all facts in hand. In fact, I immediately called a press conference the following morning to personally answer the journalists' questions."

Mallia reiterated that he did not personally chose Sheehan to be his security officer "but his name was suggested to me and I accepted him after I was assured that he was security screened".

The now Labour MP said he will retain his seat in parliament to serve the people who elected him and to see the implementation of Labour's electoral programme.