Magistrate interviewed ‘hundreds’ over Egrant

The inquiring magistrate investigating allegations on the Prime Minister’s wife ownership of a secret offshore Panama company, told MEPs visiting Malta this week he had interviewed “hundreds of witnesses” on the case.

Aaron Bugeja met MEPs Sven Giegold, Ana Gomes, and David Casa during their follow-up mission on rule of law in Malta, where he briefed them on details concerning the overall investigation of the Egrant affair.

“He said he interviewed hundreds of witnesses. Then he said that he had looked at information from foreign sources relevant to the case, and specified that he had interviewed and interrogated both locals and foreign individuals,” a source privy to the conversation that took place during the meeting told MaltaToday.

The Egrant inquiry was launched on a police complaint by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, after the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia published the allegation in April 2017, popularly believed to have originated from Pilatus Bank whistleblower Maria Efimova.

Muscat has tied his political career to the findings of the inquiry. Both Bugeja and Magistrate Anthony Vella agreed to meet the three MEPs on Friday, but Bugeja made it clear before the meeting that he could not answer specific questions about the inquiry and about who had been interviewed. Bugeja was also quizzed by the delegation as to whether the Maltese police had failed to investigate the Egrant affair.

“He told them that the police were part of his inquiry and had supported him in all the investigations at all times,” said the same source.

I very clearly pointed out to @AnaGomesMEP @sven_giegold
during Friday meeting that their approach creates a dangerous, unwarranted precedent; Politicians meeting inquiring magistrates not in capacity of a witness/expert is totally unacceptable in a democracy @JosephMuscat_JM

— Edward Zammit-Lewis (@ZammitLewisEdw) June 4, 2018

Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis took to Twitter on Monday, writing that he told MEPs Ana Gomes and Sven Giegold during Friday's meeting that their approach created a "dangerous, unwarranted precedent".