Joseph Muscat requests publication of full Egrant report but this won’t happen anytime soon

The Prime Minister asks the Law Commissioner to propose ways how Egrant report can be published in its entirety without prejudicing ongoing investigations

16 December 2019, 11:51am
by Kurt Sansone

2 min read

Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi, a retired judge, has been tasked to analyse Egrant inquiry report and propose ways of publishing it without prejudicing ongoing investigations

TWEET SHARE

Joseph Muscat has asked Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi to analyse this morning’s court ruling and propose ways how the Egrant report can be published in its entirety.

The Prime Minister has requested the publication of the full report with the necessary safeguards to avoid prejudicing ongoing investigations and avoid publishing private details of people unrelated to the case.

The statement was released by the government in the wake of a court ruling that Opposition leader Adrian Delia should be given a copy of the full report but denied the request for the report to be published.

Muscat had promised to publish the report but the Attorney General opposed the move, insisting that releasing the full inquiry report could prejudice ongoing investigations apart from this containing personal details of people unconnected to the case.

Only the 50-page conclusion was published. The Egrant inquiry had concluded that contrary to allegations made on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog, the Panama company did not belong to the Prime Minister’s wife, Michelle Muscat.

“While it has already been stated that the Attorney General will give a full copy to the Leader of the Opposition as declared by the Constitutional Court, Dr Muscat has asked the Commissioner of Laws Judge Emeritus Dr Antonio Mizzi to analyse the sentence of the Constitutional Court and to suggest ways how the report can be also published without creating prejudice to the investigations and to the private details of persons who have no relation to the case,” the government statement read.

The Egrant report is 1,500 pages long but only the 50-page conclusion was published in the summer of 2018

The Egrant inquiry report is 1,500 pages long, which means that publication of the full report will not happen anytime soon until Mizzi, a retired judge, carries out a detailed exercise of redaction.

It is very likely that Mizzi will also have to consult with the AG and the police to determine which ongoing investigations could be prejudiced by the publication of the report.

Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday. He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...