Responsibility must still be shouldered by those who used Egrant for political reasons, PM says

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said that responsibility must be shouldered by those who used Egrant for their political intentions.

In a radio interview with head of One News Owen Galea, the PM said that the inquiry affirmed that neither he, nor anyone related to him owned Egrant.

“The inquiry has shown how much they lied about me and my wife,” Muscat said.

The Egrant inquiry report was published in its entirety yesterday by Opposition leader Adrian Delia after a court ruled that he must be given a copy of the full report. MaltaToday has been trawling through the report, providing updates to its live blog here.

Muscat said that once he is relieved from office, and returns to being a private citizen, he expects justice to be made with him and his family.

“I await an investigation to see who forged the documents and the signatures,” he said.

The PM also made reference to Simon Busutill’s Facebook post on Tuesday, following Adrian Delia’s statement that he would be publishing the report.

“The Egrant report has shown that Joseph Muscat lied when he said that I falsified the documents. There is absolutely nothing about this in the report,” Busuttil wrote.

Muscat said that Busutill’s statement only showed that he based his 2017 general election campaign on “nothing but lies”.

“I never said that Simon Busutill forged the signatures, I said that he jumped on to the band wagon and made the story his,” Muscat said.

“He has confirmed that all he did was base an election campaign on a lie and a false document,” he continued.

Muscat also made reference to Adrian Delia’s decision to remove Busutill from his shadow cabinet when the Egrant report was released.

“There have been a lot of U-turns, and now the Opposition leader knows they will turn on him one day or another,” he said.

Muscat also said that Adrian Delia did him a political favour by publishing the report.

“The Attorney General’s advice has always been that I should not publish the report as it might disrupt other ongoing investigations. Now if they are, he must be the one to shoulder that responsibility,” he said.

The PM also said that recent claims on him hindering police investigations were completely unfounded.

“I didn’t interfere with the investigation when it concerned me, let alone on other investigations, and the police can tell you that,” he said.

Muscat also said that he was the only politician or PM to go to the magistrate demanding an inquiry into claims against him.

“Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed that Delia was a participant in money laundering. I don’t see him demanding an investigation into those claims,” Muscat said.