Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat spent over €125,000 on flights and other travel expenses in the last two months of 2019, just as Malta was engulfed by a political crisis brought on by his office’s links to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Following a parliamentary question from MP Jason Azzopardi, Muscat’s successor Prime Minister Robert Abela revealed that in between November and December 2019, Muscat’s office spent €125,912.17 on travel costs.

Abela declined to give a detailed account of the expenses, merely saying that the “trips were all government-related”.

Muscat controversially visited the Vatican City, Bethlehem, Dubai, and London in the month between his announcement and eventual resignation as Labour Party Leader and Malta’s Prime Minister.

He has continued his travels after stepping down, heading back to London the day after his former chief of staff Keith Schembri boarded a similar flight.

Despite stepping down, Muscat has remained in the news. Beyond being referenced several times in the middleman’s secret recordings of Yorgen Fenech, he’s also been revealed to have been a close friend of the murder suspect.

Meanwhile, he’s seemingly remained involved in political life. Muscat has confirmed that he has been contacted by a “government entity” to assist in the establishment of a Freeport for luxury goods.

He has also sent out several emails to international business people, thanking them for their service to the country, using his [email protected] email, a personal email account which he unorthodoxly used for government duty throughout his seven-year tenure as Prime Minister.