Updated | Muscat welcomes former Pilatus bank employee’s decision to testify

A former employee of Pilatus Bank this afternoon appeared before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja to testify in the inquiry set up to investigate allegations that the wife of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Michelle Muscat, holds a share in offshore Panamanian company, Egrant Inc.

In her blog, Daphne Caruana Galizia said she had the former employee’s permission to report this.

Caruana Galizia confirmed that the woman was the source of most of her reports about the banks’ activities and its clients.

Questioned by reporters outside ONE TV’s premises in Marsa, Muscat said he was glad that the woman had chosen to testify.

“The truth will out,” he told a reporter from Net TV, owned by the rival Nationalist Party.

“I will continue to swear in God’s name that I’m telling the truth,” he said when asked.

Muscat said he was now more than ever convinced that the whole allegation is a lie. “You’re going to make a fool of yourselves,” he told the reporter.

Caruana Galizia said the whistleblower had not been forced to appear before the magistrate but she had volunteered to go and give her testimony.

“She has been reading everything that has been written about the escalating scandal, and all the to-and-fro debates, denials and threats of libel by those involved,” Caruana Galizia said.

“This morning I received a message from her saying that she was in Valletta, and that she had gone to court and asked to be allowed to testify, but was told by clerks – who did not realise the significance of the person – that she would have to file a formal application. She did not wish to do this.

“I sent a message to the inquiring magistrate’s clerk, who rang back within minutes to give her an appointment for 3pm. She spent three hours with the inquiring magistrate, and left court shortly after 6pm.”

Caruana Galizia added that the proceedings of the inquiry are held behind closed doors, “and those who testify are bound over not to discuss them”.

The inquiry is also looking into that allegations Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijani autocratic leader Ilham Aliyev, transferred money to Egrant Inc.

Muscat has denied the allegations.