Murder case creeps closer to leader

Politicians quit as case creeps closer to PM

Malta was plunged into political turmoil Tuesday after an aide and two politicians close to the prime minister fell on their swords as the investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia gained pace. The first scalp of the day was Keith Schembri, Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff, followed by Konrad Mizzi, the tourism minister.

Both had been under pressure to resign for days because of their alleged financial links to Yorgen Fenech, a business tycoon who was arrested last week on his yacht.

Fenech was the owner of a Dubai-based company called 17 Black Ltd., which was under investigation by 53-year-old Caruana Galizia when she was killed in a car bombing near her home in Bidnija in October 2017. According to documents uncovered in 2015 by Malta’s financial regulators, the company was due to make payments of up to $2.7 million to secret Panama-based companies owned by Schembri and Mizzi. It is not known whether any payments were made and both politicians deny any wrongdoing.

Chris Cardona, the economy minister, was the third politician of the day to announce he was suspending himself from government until the murder investigation is complete. Caruana Galizia had accused him of visiting a brothel in Germany during an official visit in early 2017, a charge he vehemently denied. He was questioned by police on Saturday in connection with the case and denied any involvement in the killing.

“I was asked whether I had any involvement in the murder, and I answered no,” he told Malta Today.

As the investigation crept ever closer to Muscat, the leader said he had no intention of stepping down.

“Whatever people might say, there is no impunity in this country. I would definitely resign if there were any association between myself and the murder,” he said.

Three men are awaiting trial for detonating the bomb, as police continue their investigation into who ordered the killing.

In a new book about the murder, Schembri is described as a shrewd businessman and “the mastermind behind Muscat’s political success.”

“Everywhere else in the democratic world, a politician or senior government official accused of owning a shell company in Panama would have been forced to resign. Not in Malta,” wrote Maltese journalist Manuel Delia and former BBC reporter John Sweeney in Murder on the Malta Express.

The murder of Caruana Galizia, a mother-of-three, revealed a murky web of corruption on the island.

Her husband, Peter, has called on Schembri to face prosecution.