‘I expect those who pushed Egrant story to admit it was false’ - Prime Minister

Those who pushed the “Egrant lie” should admit in Parliament that what they said was false, Joseph Muscat has said.

The Prime Minister was replying in Parliament to a question by Opposition leader Adrian Delia on whether a ministerial declaration would be taking place regarding the information which recently emerged that the Attorney General had sent a full copy of the Egrant report to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici.

Muscat's statements come on the first day Parliament reconvened after the summer break.

“The first ministerial declaration should be on the big lie which your colleagues said about me,” Muscat said, “They didn’t even have the decency to admit that what they said was a lie.”

The AG had last week said, during the course of a court hearing instituted by Delia - where the Opposition leader is demanding the publication of the full inquiry - that he had emailed a copy of the report to Bonnici.

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Attorney General emailed full copy of Egrant inquiry to Justice minister, court hears

Earlier in today’s sitting, Delia asked a series of supplementary questions requesting information connected with the sending of the Egrant inquiry report to Bonnici, and on the Justice Minister’s reported insistence today that he was duty-bound to assist the Prime Minister on matters of “national importance”.

He also asked if the report was passed on to any other third-parties.

In the absence of Bonnici - who is abroad - parliamentary secretary Deo Debattista repeatedly replied that the questions should be asked to the Justice Minister when he returns.

In the course of the sitting, Nationalist Party MP Karol Aquilina also asked Speaker Anglu Farrugia for a formal ruling regarding the matter of questions he had sent to Parliament asking the Speaker for a full copy of the Egrant report and for the names and roles of all persons who were given a full copy of it.

He said that he had been informed today by the Clerk of the House that the Speaker said he couldn’t accept the questions, as they breached one of Parliament’s standing orders.

Aquilina said the Egrant report was a matter of public importance, and he was requesting a formal ruling by the Speaker regarding the questions he had put forward.

The Speaker told the House he would be giving a ruling on the issue later.