A Maltese magistrate has ruled there is a need for an investigation into revelations linking Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri to the Dubai-based company 17 Black – but there was no need for a new, separate inquiry. 

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale instead ordered the investigation into 17 Black to form part of an original inquiry already approved by Magistrate Ian Farrugia but awaiting the verdict of an appeal by PL officials. He ordered any related documentation that could be relevant to the investigation to be sent to Magistrate Farrugia and to be seen in the context of the first inquiry.

His response was made after PN MP Simon Busuttil and MEP David Casa requested a magisterial inquiry into Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri, citing new revelations by the Daphne Project as a clear example of corruption.

The Daphne Project released documents showing $1.6 million was sent to 17 Black just one month before leaked emails indicated the Dubai-based company was intended as a client target of Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri’s Panama-based companies.

Soon after the 2017 election, Dr Busuttil had requested a fresh magisterial inquiry into whether Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri had been involved in any money laundering schemes. 

Today’s decision by the magistrate means that any investigation into 17 Black will form part of Magistrate Ian Farrugia’s inquiry.

“David Casa and Simon Busuttil are interested in wasting the court’s time” – Labour Party

The Labour party released a statement saying the courts have strongly condemned Dr Busuttil and Dr Casa. They said the courts have not accepted to open a new inquiry into Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri as it is clearly just a “repetition” of another ongoing inquiry.

“The Magistrate himself said ‘this leads to both a waste of resources as well as hampering the efficient running of the investigation’,” they said. “This is a clear condemnation of the behavior of Simon Busuttil and David Casa in the last few months, behavior that we have said more than once could lead to the hindering of the justice process.”

They said the Inquiring Magistrate pointed out that it wasn’t in the interest of justice that there be “duplicates let alone triplicates” of the same investigations into the same accusations based on the same facts.

What do you think of these developments?

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Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]