Abela insists police not ignoring Panama Papers case

Home affairs minister Carmelo Abela has denied that the police are ignoring the Panama Papers case, and that the government is pressuring the force not to investigate.

“The police is following the case and there is certain information that they cannot disclose to the public,” Abela said. “At this stage, they haven’t launched individual investigations into anyone or charge anyone in court, as they don’t have enough evidence that a crime has been committed.

“I can assure you that no politician is pressuring them not to do their work. I firmly believe that politicians shouldn’t instruct police on what to investigate or to meddle into their investigations, as was the case under previous PN administration.”

Abela was speaking during a parliamentary debate on a Bill that would allow people to receive their police conducts at home without having to pick them up from the police’s Floriana headquarters. The Bill unanimously passed its second reading.

During the debate, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami lashed out at the police force of “inertia” for failing to investigate minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, who were revealed in the Panama Papers to be holders of offshore Panama-registered companies.

“They face serious allegations of corruption, and the police commissioner is obliged to launch an investigation into the case without someone having to file a report,” Fenech Adami said. “That is how police act around the world.”

The PN deputy leader was reacting to a recent report in the Malta Independent, which said that the police will not carry out individual investigations into Mizzi and Schembri because it feels that, “on the basis of the information obtained by the local authorities, there isn’t the necessary reasonable suspicion to the level required by law that a crime has been committed”.

Abela insisted that the police force is fully autonomous from government and urged Fenech Adami not to instruct the police what to and what not to investigate.

“As Opposition leader, Joseph Muscat was always cautious not to criticise the police force, but it looks as though the current Opposition has taken a different stance.”