“We presented a mountain of evidence that the court collected itself through an inquiry that cost the people €7.5 million,” Aquilina said.

“We presented an entire inquiry from start to finish, including the conclusions which ordered the police commissioner and the Attorney General to bring charges against Pilatus Bank and six people. However, they chose to only charge the bank and its money laundering reporting officer, and not the other four people, including the bank’s owner Ali Sadr Hasheminejad.”

He pledged to appeal this ruling, which he described as a “perversion of justice based on several factual and legal errors”.

Aquilina also promised not to provide any information to Gafà if he summons him for an interrogation into the leaks.

“He will not get any information at all from me,” he said. “In fact, I will tell him that in the past two days, new sources approached me with new information, including about the obscenities at the police force under Gafa’s orders. Come what may, I will protect the identity of my sources as I promised them.”

He finally turned his guns on Robert Abela, who he claimed is “only Prime Minister thanks to Repubblika”.

“It is clear that there are attempts of frame-ups and persecution, and if Abela decides to go down this path, then he will find us in his way. He knows well what we’re capable of, because if it wasn’t for us, he wouldn’t even be Prime Minister. We would have no problem with repeating what we had done with Joseph Muscat with him.”