[WATCH] Joseph Muscat refuses to say who paid for his €21,000 flight to Dubai

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat has refused to name who paid his €21,000 flight tickets for his trip to Dubai last December.

In his report, the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life George Hyzler found no ethics breach in Muscat’s visit to Dubai over the Christmas period when he was caretaker prime minister.

Hyzler said that a detailed explanation about the purpose of the visit and who paid for the trip was given by the former PM. The commissioner also said that Muscat requested that details of the visit not be unveiled in the public domain.

“I gave all the necessary data to the Standards Commissioner, and he decided there was no ethics breach. I was totally transparent with him,” Muscat said on Monday as he exited parliament.

The former PM said that as long as the “concerned entity” has no direct interests in Malta, he deserves to continue with his private life.

Muscat also denied any connection between the unnamed entity and his government.

Muscat had flown on a holiday to Dubai in the company of his wife Michelle and children, just days after announcing his resignation as prime minister. Muscat had then already visited the Vatican City and Bethlehem as damaging revelations continued to emerge on the proximity between Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech and the prime minister's former chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Nationalist Party MP Jason Azzopardi had published on his Facebook page a photo taken on board the plane, showing the Muscats flying first-class to Dubai. Azzopardi had noted that first-class seats, which afford more privacy, were even more expensive than business class.

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