Panama Papers | Busuttil announces demonstration calling on PM to sack minister, aide

Opposition leader Simon Busuttl has announced that he will convene a demonstration on Sunday outside the Prime Minister’s office to call for the resignation of energy minister Konrad Mizzi and Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Both men were found to have used offshore companies in Panama to hide their beneficial ownership, and then linking them up to offshore trusts in New Zealand, which enjoy zero tax on assets held by non-domiciled beneficiaries.

Busuttil has already called for their resignation in parliament in response to a ministerial statement by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who insists that he will only take a decision if money is found to have been deposited inside the companies.

Busuttil said he was inviting trade unions and civil society to join his demonstration “against corruption” and whose theme is a stark message to the prime minister telling him to “sack them, or leave”.

Busuttil has already led a demonstration in protest at corruption after it was revealed, weeks before the Panama Papers leaks, that Mizzi had set up an offshore company in 2015. The Opposition leader says that all contracts signed under the aegis of Konrad Mizzi, which include several privatisation projects, should now be investigated by the police.

Addressing a press conference at parliament, Busuttil described the demonstration as an opportunity for the public to “express its disgust and anger” at how the Prime Minister was handling the case.

“Muscat has made it amply clear that he has no intention of sacking Mizzi and Schembri. Unlike Muscat, I am not ready to let the country sink with them. The anger the people were feeling against Mizzi and Schembri has now turned against Muscat,” Busuttil added.

In his opening comments, the opposition leader remarked that the Panama Papers have forced the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland. The leaked documents showed that Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife had set up a company in 2007 in the British Virgin Islands through the law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The documents also suggested that he sold his half of the company to her for $1, on the last day of 2009, just before the implementation of a new law that would have required him as a member of Parliament to declare his ownership as a conflict of interest.

Arguing that Mizzi was the only minister of the European Union to be listed in the Panama Papers, Busuttil accused him of causing irreparable damage to Malta’s reputation.

He reiterated that the leaks have revealed how Mizzi had unsuccessfully tried to open a bank account, in Panama and then in Dubai.

In June 2015 Mizzi told Mossack Fonseca he would use Hearnville as a management consultancy and brokerage firm – something which Mizzi described as having filled out a "standard category wording that was included in a template form which was part of the company acquisition process”.

However, Busuttil argued that a minister declaring brokerage “only means committing corruption, money laundering and receiving kickbacks”.

“The Maltese police should investigate Mizzi on attempted corruption, money laundering and kickbacks,” he said.

In a tough reaction, Busuttil insisted that he does “not believe Mizzi”.

“I don’t believe anything which Mizzi was involved in over the past three years. I don’t believe any of the investigations he presents,” Busuttil replied, when asked about the €150 million required to repair weak concrete structures at Mater Dei Hospital.

He also said that if a PN MP or official turns out to be amongst the 59 beneficiaries with an offshore company or account, “they will have to shoulder responsibility”.