Simon Busuttil will not resign after Egrant inquiry exonerates Muscats

A defiant Simon Busuttil has rubbished the Prime Minister’s call for his resignation, insisting it was his duty to react to the Egrant allegations last year.

Busuttil, who posted his reaction to the inquiry findings on his Facebook wall, called for the whole inquiry report to be published.

“It is unacceptable that the Prime Minister has the full report while people only have excerpts… I reserve the right to comment further once I have read the full report,” Busuttil said.

The former PN leader also took issue with Muscat’s call for his resignation, describing it “ridiculous”.

“The Prime Minister is the last person to speak about political responsibility when he never shouldered it himself despite a series of corruption scandals,” Busuttil rebutted.

He insisted that it was his duty as Opposition leader at the time to “react to a serious allegation that was made and insist the truth come out”.

Busuttil said the Egrant inquiry was not about him and urged the Prime Minister to wait for the other pending inquiries into allegations against Keith Schembri and other people linked to Pilatus Bank, which had been flagged by the FIAU.

Busuttil insisted the published findings so far had not answered the most important question: “Who owned Egrant?”

He said that if the inquiry found it belonged to Nexia BT owner Brian Tonna, the other question would be on behalf of whom did Tonna hold the company.