Government denies anti-mafia commission member excluded from coming to Malta for saying Prime Minister should resign

A statement by Five Star Movement Senator Mario Michele Giarrusso, who said that the Maltese government had asked that he be dropped from the anti-mafia commission scheduled to visit Malta on Monday, was this morning denied by the government.

This comes after Giarrusso accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of failing to protection murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and called on him to resign.

The government said Malta’s ambassador in Rome had contacted Rosy Bindi, the anti-mafia commission’s chairperson in the Italian parliament, to ask for an explanation on Giarrusso’s “invented” claims. Malta's foreign minister also contacted the Italian ambassador in Malta for clarification on the matter.

Both confirmed that the Maltese government had never been consulted or expressed itself, formally or informally, on any of the delegation members, and that their visit had been scheduled prior to this week, the government said.

In a Radio 101 interview earlier today, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said that if Giarrusso claims on being excluded were factual, this would mean the government was rejecting freedom of speech and criticism, and that Malta would be moving into very dangerous territory at a time when the lens of the world was on our island. 

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