Simon Busuttil Dismisses Prime Minister’s ‘Ridiculous’ Demand For His Resignation
Former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has dismissed as “ridiculous” a demand by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for his resignation in light of the publication of the Egrant magisterial inquiry.
“The Prime Minister is the last person who can speak about political responsibility seeing as he never shouldered it himself, despite the string of scandals since his election,” Busuttil wrote on Facebook. “May I remind the Prime Minister that the inquiry wasn’t about me because Egrant doesn’t belong to me. It was my duty as Opposition leader to react to those serious allegations and to insist that the whole truth comes out, particularly since we had already known of two other Panama companies that were set up for Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. Did the Prime Minister expect the Opposition to keep its mouth shut in light of such serious allegations?”
Busuttil demanded the immediate publication of the entire inquiry report, which is some 1,500 pages long.
“It is unacceptable that the Prime Minister has a full copy of the report, while the public can only see bits and pieces of it. It is in the public interest that this report is immediately published in full, and I reserve my right to react further once I’ve read the entire report.”
Busuttil said the inquiry’s summary does not determine who in fact owns Egrant.
“Brian Tonna works as a financial intermediary, so if Egrant belonged to him then one would need to ask who he was holding it for. This is a crucial point, particularly when one considers that Tonna had already opened two other Panama companies for Schembri and Mizzi in the same timeframe.”
Meanwhile, PN media chief Pierre Portelli – who had passed on a copy of the alleged Egrant declaration of trust to magistrate Aaron Bugeja – insisted he also acted properly.
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