Prime Minister’s Security Was Provided By British Government: OPM Reacts To BBC Journalist’s Accusations
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was interviewed by John Sweeney last January
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has dismissed claims by veteran BBC journalist John Sweeney that his security guards had acted violently towards him during an event in London.
Addressing a lecture at the University of Malta today, Sweeney recounted how he had tried to doorstep Muscat last April just as he was about to step into a hall to attend an official function.
“When I doorstepped Vladimir Putin in Siberia, the Kremlin muscle didn’t thump me, but when I doorstepped Joseph Muscat in London, his security guards thumped me,” the BBC journalist said. “Maybe the Kremlin should start training Muscat’s bodyguards.”
However, a spokesperson for Muscat said that John Sweeney “once again did not check his facts” and that the Maltese Prime Minister wasn’t accompanied by his own security team, but by experienced security guards provided by the British government for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), in London.
“The man Sweeney claims had muscled him is a very experienced security person who has provided security to top British politicians, including Prime Ministers,” he said. “Sweeney should probably rethink his comparison.”
Sweeney said he had intended to ask Muscat whether he will stand by Economy Minister Chris Cardona in light of reports from the Daphne Project that he had been sighted at a bar in the company of Alfred Degiorgio, one of the men charged with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
READ NEXT: As It Happened: The Last Journalist To Interview Joseph Muscat Derides Prime Minister And Warns Of Kremlin Tactics
