Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the family of assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have clashed in public over the conclusions of the Egrant magisterial inquiry.

After the Caruana Galizias published a statement which noted that the inquiry had failed to established who owns the Panama company, Muscat noted that the family didn’t dispute the inquiry’s finding that a document claiming Egrant belonged to his wife was a forged one with falsified signatures.

“The fact that the family does not contest that the documents were forged means that they accept the conclusion that someone actually falsified the documents used by Mrs Caruana Galizia to base her story,” Muscat said. “The family could help shed light by stating whether they were aware of this fact.”

However, the late journalist’s youngest son Paul was quick to point out that this fake declaration of trust was not handed in to the magistrate by his mother but by Pierre Portelli – then Malta Independent editor and now head of the PN’s media.

“If it’s not trolls, then it’s unhinged press release – enemies of the state, liars etc etc,” he tweeted.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja confirmed that the only copy of the alleged declaration of trust was handed in to him by Pierre Portelli, who in turn said he had obtained it from a source which wasn’t Caruana Galizia or her informer Maria Efimova.

Neither Caruana Galizia or Efimova were able to produce the document, with both of them telling Bugeja they had only seen it off the other.

READ NEXT: Nationalist MPs Publicly Turn Against Adrian Delia After Busuttil Banishment

Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]