[WATCH] Muscat challenges PN leader to say all he knows on Egrant

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat once again challenged opposition leader Simon Busuttil to say who is the owner of the third Panama company Egrant.

“I call on Simon Busuttil to tell us all he knows” Muscat said, adding that allegations that the company belongs to him, his wife of his children are absolutely false.

“What will the leader of the Opposition do if [Malta Independent columnist and blogger] Daphne Caruana Galizia does not publish any evidence to back up her allegations?” Muscat asked.

Caruana Galizia yesterday alleged that Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijani autocratic leader Ilham Aliyev, transferred money to Egrant and the two Panama companies owned by Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister Konrad Mizzi. This came after Caruana Galizia claimed to know the identity of Egrant's owner, in a blogpost accompanied with a picture of the Prime Minister's spouse Michelle Muscat and Leyla Aliyeva.

Insisting that he has consistently denied the allegations for months, Muscat said “out of decency, whoever has any thing to say should say it, prove it and responsibilities should be shouldered. I have no qualm with that. But making unfounded and senseless allegations without producing one shred of evidence is not acceptable.”

Insisting that “nothing has changed” in terms of his chief of staff Keith Schembri and minister Konrad Mizzi’s position, Muscat said that any questions on transections involving Egrant should be referred to Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna who had claimed that the third Panama company was his.
Repeatedly asking the PN journalist whether his name is mentioned in the email published by Tonna to prove his ownership of the company, Muscat insisted he does not own Egrant.