Former prime minister Joseph Muscat told a board of inquiry on Friday that he had no prior indication of any plans for the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
“To be clear, I had no information that Daphne Caruana Galizia’s life was in danger, and nobody made any statement to that effect. Moreover, I am not informed that any State entity was aware of such, let alone facilitated or could have prevented.”
During an almost five-hour long grilling that touched on the Panama Papers revelations and 17 Black, Joseph Muscat said his chief of staff Keith Schembri, told him that 17 Black was a business holding.
Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, a former minister in Joseph Muscat’s cabinet, both are alleged to have had interests in 17 Black.
Yorgen Fenech, who is accused o being the mastermind behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, is also reported to be involved in the same 17 Black company.
Joseph Muscat told the inquiry that he had a choice of either keeping Schembri and Mizzi in their posts or sacking them. He chose to keep them.
File photo.
