Despite pledge to ‘cooperate’, Muscat, Mizzi and Schembri appeal court decree

Despite a government press release saying that it would cooperate with a new magisterial inquiry that will be investigating whether any laws were broken when Panama companies were opened, the seven people involved have appealed the court’s decision.

On Wednesday, Magistrate Ian Farrugia accepted Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil’s request to open a new investigation which, among other things, will look into whether Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were in breach of money laundering legislation when opening companies in the secretive jurisdiction of Panama.

The application listed the various political revelations and manoeuvres which raised the Opposition’s suspicions starting from the date both took their posts. Among other things, it highlighted an email where Nexia BT’s Karl Cini gave the goahead for the opening of bank accounts, despite a Panamanian bank requiring minimum deposits of $1 million a year.

Apart from Mizzi and Schembri, the investigation also includes Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna and Karl Cini, Kasco Limited employee Malcolm Scerri and former Allied Newspapers Ltd managing director Adrian Hillman.

The PN said that all seven were “suspect persons,” a term which the Labour Party took exception to. The PL played things down and insisted that, contrary to what the PN leader had been stating, there was no evidence and the court would in fact be trying to see whether such evidence existed. It also accused the PN of misinterpreting the decree, saying this was not a ‘criminal’ investigation.

The government also said that the Opposition Leader was incorrect and that he was misinterpreting the decree in a shameful way. It said, however, that “like in the other inquiries, the government members will be cooperating with the inquiry.”

Yet within less than 24 hours, the seven people named in the inquiry challenged the magistrate’s decision. The appeal will be heard by Judge Antonio Mizzi, who was duty judge yesterday, when it was filed.

Reacting in a tweet, Simon Busuttil said that, instead of welcoming an investigation into the Panama Papers they are resisting it all the way. “That says a lot.”