Ferris will reveal information if 'something happens' to him

Sacked FIAU investigator Jonathan Ferris has given important notes with information on previous investigations into money laundering to family and friends in case something were to happen to him

Jonathan Ferris has threatened to reveal information he discovered should anything happen to him.

Former police officer and former Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) investigator Jonathan Ferris told BBC Newsnight he fears for his life after looking into allegations made by murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

"Following 16 October, and what happened to Daphne Caruana Galizia, I divided my work and my information into six different envelopes with specific notes," he said.

"They are distributed to six members of family and close friends, and should something happen to me abruptly - say I'm killed - all that information will go public at once."

During the interview with BBC, Ferris said he was seeking full police protection amid concerns he could be targeted after looking into her claims against top political figures.

After Ferris left the police force, he worked at the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and said he was about to investigate the highest officials of government, including the Prime Minister, but he was prevented from doing this by being dismissed from the agency. Ferris was sacked while still on probation shortly after the June 2017 election.

Back in November, the Opposition asked prime minister Joseph Muscat to offer Ferris, his family and his property protection. The government had said that protection had already been given to Ferris.

Before her murder, Daphne Caruana Galizia was working on the investigations centred around allegations against the Maltese prime minister’s chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, and minister Konrad Mizzi. 

Caruana Galizia revealed that both were financial beneficiaries of secretive “shell” companies registered in Panama. Both ministers were named in the Panama Papers, and both denied any wrongdoing.

Ferris was looking into the case last year while working at FIAU. He believes that his work threatened to uncover sensitive secrets.

"We believe there was political interference," he told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

FIAU have since denied this, and told the BBC that Ferris’s dismissal was based "solely on an objective and comprehensive performance assessment."

“Unease and anxiety are part of Maltese life,” BBC’s John Sweeney wrote.

“We walked through the gloom of an underground car park to his car and suddenly I felt a stab of terror - that getting blown up was not impossible.”

He went on to say that Ferris carries a gun legally for safety.

Jason Azzopardi,  shadow justice minister also said that Ferris's fears that he could be targeted were "realistic".