Busuttil allegations on Schembri forwarded to new magistrate: PM

The Office of the Prime Minister has announced that a request by the Opposition to present new evidence to Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, currently investigating the ‘Egrant’ allegations, has been forwarded to a new magistrate.

The evidence concerns accusations by PN leader Simon Busuttil, that the prime minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri paid €650,000 to the former Allied Group managing director Adrian Hillman through an offshore company between 2011 and 2015, which Busuttil claims is a “textbook case of money laundering”.

Schembri’s Kasco Group supplied Allied with newsprint during this time period.

Busuttil insisted on taking his evidence to Magistrate Bugeja, a move that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat described as a delaying tactic to bog down the Egrant inquiry.

The OPM said Bugeja will be taking the evidence to be inquired into by another magistrate, as he originally did with other accusations brought against Schembri by Busuttil, which are now under inquiry by Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras.

“As happened in the first case, the Opposition leader took evidence with him that has nothing to do with the lie concocted about the prime minister and his family,” the OPM said in a statement

“The magistrate also warned the Opposition leader that he had avenues other than that of taking his report to the magistrate. This confirms that the Opposition leader is only playing for time to cover up his own lies.”

MaltaToday did not see a copy of the magistrate’s decree.