[WATCH] Repubblika files police report to investigate Muscat over consultancies

The NGO Repubblika has filed a report to the Police Commissioner calling for an investigation into former Labour prime minister Joseph Muscat.

Repubblika president Robert Aquilina said the Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech lost his mobile phone in America in 2018, and that when he started using a new one early in 2019, he felt the need to message Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi, to let them know that all their previous messages had been deleted. 

“This is the behaviour of someone who would have acted in bad faith,” Aquilina claimed.

“We are aware that Mizzi panicked when he got to know that Fenech lost his phone. We know that Mizzi was highly panicked and anxious to assure himself that the messages between himself and Yorgen Fenech were safe.”

Aquilina held a press conference in front of the Financial Crimes Investigations Department (FCID) building, where he presented a report to the Police Commissioner.

Aquilina claimed that nothing was being done to bring the “untouchables” Mizzi and Muscat to justice, despite the sacking of former police inspector Ian Abdilla, and the appointment of Alexandra Mamo to the Financial Crimes Investigation Department.

“If Commissioner Angelo Gafà, Mamo and the Attorney General think that we will stop with the action we took recently, they are gravely mistaken […] since then, we have received a lot of information about what was going on between Yorgen Fenech and public officials,”  Aquilina said – he mentioned government appointees Frederick Azzopardi, James Piscopo, Heathcliff Farrugia, Joseph Cuschieri and Johann Buttigieg by name. 

Aquilina touched upon the revelations by the Sunday Times that Muscat was paid €60,000 from a Swiss firm linked to Steward Healthcare. He also said that since the two former directors of the Swiss company, Kamal Sharma and Tyrone Greenshields are in the UK, Repubblika wrote to the British police to request a joint investigation.

“This is prime facie a textbook case of money laundering [...] I will therefore repeat myself in front of the FCID, what I said in Valletta: Joseph Muscat belongs in prison,” Aquilina said.