Konrad Mizzi returns to Malta after months-long absence

Konrad Mizzi has returned to Malta after an extended absence, it has been reported.

Net News spotted the ex-tourism minister exiting Malta airport after flying back to the island from the UK on Tuesday afternoon.

Mizzi, who remains a Labour MP, had not attended Parliament since March, saying he was unable to leave Britain - where he owns a home - for medical reasons.

It had been reported that he had presented a doctor’s certificate to certify that he was unfit to travel to Malta.

He will now have to spend 14 days in mandatory quarantine, in line with the health authorities' COVID-19 instructions.

When asked by reporters, as he was leaving the airport, why he was in the UK, Mizzi replied that he had travelled there for work-related reasons, and subsequently fell ill and stayed until he recovered.

He declined to answer more questions, saying he was tired and would speak once his quarantine period was over.

Mizzi stepped down as minister last November, in the wake of mass protests connected with revelations emerging from the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Caruana Galizia had in 2016 revealed that Mizzi had - while occupying the position of energy minister, shortly after Labour were elected to power in 2013 - set up a secret shell company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand.

In May, PN MP Jason Azzopardi claimed in Parliament that Mizzi, who piloted the controversial Electrogas power station deal, had sought a guarantee that he would not be arrested by the police if he returned to Malta.

Nationalist MEP David Casa, writing on Twitter today, insinuated that there was a connection between the nomination of Angelo Gafà as Malta’s new police chief on Monday, and Mizzi’s decision to return.