Prime Minister Robert Abela does not exclude removing Attorney General Peter Grech from his role amid growing pressure over the reveal that he told police to not seize data servers from Nexia BT in relation to the Panama Papers scandal.

“I’ve already revised some major roles in government and I’m not excluding taking the same action against the AG, whether this is soon or not remains to be seen,” Abela told Lovin Malta.

Abela insisted that the AG was acting within his duties when dishing out his advice to police on the issue. However, he said that the AG’s advice should have been far more specific and provide direction to police officers on how best to move forward.

“I’m not defending him, I’m just being factual,” Abela said.

Quoting two sources, the Times of Malta has reported that Grech had sent a note to police warning that following up on the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit’s advice to conduct a seizure of Nexia BT data would be “highly intrusive” and “counterproductive”.

He said that police should demand a “high level of reasonable suspicion” before such a measure would be justified.

Nexia BT is the accountancy firm that set up the offshore Panamanian accounts of former Minister Konrad Mizzi and former Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Caruana Galizia was the journalist to first reveal the existence of the secret companies.

The revelations would eventually lead to journalists uncovering that 17 Black, a target client of the Panamanian companies, belonged to Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of murdering Caruana Galizia. Fenech’s company is also linked to the controversial Enemalta purchase of a Montenegrin windfarm.

Grech has been facing renewed calls for his resignation ever since the first hints of the memo were revealed during the public inquiry into the assassination of Caruana Galizia.

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