Petrus wine: No sanctions; committee agrees Muscat letter is ‘form of apology’

Parliament’s standards committee agreed on Monday that former PM Joseph Muscat would not face any sanctions after he breached ethics by accepting three expensive bottles of wine from Yorgen Fenech. It also considered a letter sent by Muscat to be a “form of apology.”

Muscat had accepted the Petrus wine bottles, worth just under €6,000, at a party held at Girgenti Palace in February of last year. Fenech is the suspected mastermind in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He was charged in November 2019.

Standards Commissioner George Hyzler had found that Muscat had breached ethics by accepting the gift. Muscat has always denied wrongdoing and said the gift went to the state.

The committee, which last month endorsed Hyzler’s report, had asked Muscat to make his submission in person during the meeting, before a final decision was taken. The former PM, however, declined to attend and said he had nothing to add to comments he had given last month.

Muscat noted that even George Hyzler was not able to come up with a proposal over what sanctions should be imposed.

Opposition MPs Karol Aquilina and Carm Mifsud Bonnici insisted that some form of sanctioning should be meted out. Failing to take any form of action would send out the message that politicians are above the law, they argued.

Aquilina said Muscat could make a formal apology during a plenary session. Another suggestion was for Muscat to be symbolically suspended from Parliament for a week.

But Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said no further action was warranted. They pointed out that Muscat had since resigned and the gifts were given to the state. Zammit Lewis added that, “we should not indulge in a public lynching.”

The fact that the committee had endorsed the Standards Commissioner’s report was a symbolic gesture in itself, he added.

The four members then agreed to a motion moved by Speaker Anglu Farrugia, which said that, after discussing Muscat’s letter, and while understanding that the former prime minister had a right to his position, it understood that such correspondence constituted a “form of apology” in line with the provisions of the Standards in Public Life Act.

The committee also agreed to invite Hyzler to make a presentation on his proposed revision of the Ministerial Code of Ethics.