‘Your Economy Will Suffer’: German MEP Warns Malta Over Lack Of Panama Papers Prosecutions
German MEP Sven Giegold delivered a dire economic warning to Malta over its failure to prosecute Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations.
“In no other EU country would high-government officials implicated in the Panama Papers remain in office after so much evidence was revealed,” Giegold told a press conference. “I urge the Maltese people not to get distracted by fringe issues but to focus on this core issues as it is extremely crucial for your igaming and financial services industries. They can be done elsewhere and Malta risks losing these industries unless it protects its reputation.”
“This is a real economic warning: Malta is risking its financial future if the reputation damage isn’t dealt with. I hope the Maltese people realise how risky the situation has become after the Panama Papers revelations and lack of prosecutions. I sincerely hope the legitimate Maltese businesses are not put in jeopardy by complacency on corruption and financial crime.”
Giegold, along with Socialist MEP Ana Gomes and PN MEP David Casa were in Malta today as part of a follow-up investigation into the rule of law in the country. As part of their inquiry, they met up with magistrates Anthony Vella, who is in charge of the Caruana Galiia murder inquiry, and Aaron Bugeja, who is in charge of the Egrant inquiry. They also met up with representatives from the PL, the PN and the PD, as well as with representatives from civil society and former EU commissioner John Dalli.
Gomes said she was “concerned and disturbed” at reports of seriously foul play in the police investigation into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She flagged allegations by PN MP Jason Azzopardi that the three murder suspects had been tipped off by a policeman and that the Malta Security Services might somehow have been aware of the intentions of suspect George Degiorgio, whose phone it had been tapping.
“I sincerely hope the the Maltese authorities, with the help of international police agencies, the Daphne Project and civil society are determined to find out who commissioned Caruana Galizia’s murder,” she said. “It simply cannot be that the buck stops with these three suspects and that we will know who ordered them. It is clear the suspects had no personal grudge against Daphne so we need to know who commissioned the murder.”
David Casa dismissed Muscat’s constant referral to ongoing magisterial inquiries when faced with questions on the Panama Papers and the mysterious Dubai company 17 Black as “a load of crap”.
“We [the PN] went to the judiciary ourselves to open up these inquiries because the police were doing nothing,” he said. “Back in November, I said I was in possession of a damning FIAU report which said clearly that Konrad Mizzi should be brought to justice, and yet the police didn’t call me in once about this. Is this normal? Should we all thank and praise the police for arraigning those three suspects? No, I’m sorry – the police are doing nothing, they had at least two FIAU reports on their desk and insisted there wasn’t enough evidence in them.”
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