‘I am not here to defend anyone’ – Joseph Muscat on Caruana Galizia murder

Disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat momentarily digressed from his testimony before Parliament’s Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon to insist “I am not here to defend anyone or anything” on the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Muscat also insisted, as he has done in the past, that for the assassination he “paid the highest political price, I resigned”.

“A murder is a murder and those who did it must face justice,” Muscat said. “There is a judicial process underway and I do not want to prejudice it.”

The remarks by the former PM – who resigned in January 2020 under the dark cloud of the murder and multiple corruption revelations surrounding him and his inner circle – came in the context of the “theory” that the journalist’s murder was linked to her investigation into ElectroGas and the power station contract, the subject of the PAC meeting.

The former head of ElectroGas, among other things, Yorgen Fenech, currently stands accused in court of commissioning the journalist’s murder.

Muscat, accompanied by longtime assistant Mark Farrugia, began his testimony with a request for 20 minutes to deliver a statement, in which he waxed lyrical about the need for and rationale behind the public-private-partnership power station back in 2013 and went to lengths to justify the deal.

Those 20 minutes stretched to 40 despite reminders from PAC chairman Opposition Darren Carabott.

The deal under scrutiny was spearheaded by Konrad Mizzi soon after Labour took the helm in 2013, promising to reduce energy prices and introduce a cleaner source for Malta’s energy needs through liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The deal has since been shown to have been mired in corruption and graft.

Konrad Mizzi ‘could have been more transparent’

Asked if he believes Mizzi could have been “wiser” and more transparent in his dealings. Mizzi, Muscat said, “could have worked better”.

“He could have been more transparent in the way he worked and explained things. I tell him this, as a friend.”

Pressed by Carabott to elaborate, Muscat resisted but when it was suggested he was referring to the Panama Papers, Muscat said, “Obviously”.

Mizzi and Muscat’s then-chief of staff Keith Schembri were both exposed in the Panama Papers as having secret companies in Panama and trusts in New Zealand. Those, in turn are alleged to have been linked to the power station, among other things.

Muscat said he first got to know of Mizzi through an email from Mizzi’s father saying his son was interested in politics and was returning to Malta. Schembri, Muscat said, met Mizzi after that.

Mizzi, Muscat insisted, “was the most competent person in that [energy] sector” when asked why he had been chosen as minister.

Asked about his dual role as health minister when the equally-crooked Vitals-Steward hospitals concession was negotiated, Muscat insisted Mizzi’s forte was “project management”.

Muscat’s testimony before the PAC continues next week.