[WATCH] Joseph Muscat doesn’t want Egrant report published, Delia says

The Prime Minister wants to prevent the publication of the Egrant report, despite making it seem that he wants to publish the full inquiry, Adrian Delia said.

The Nationalist Party leader said that, had Joseph Muscat really wanted to publish the full report, he would have already done so.

Delia, who was speaking during an interview on Net FM today, reiterated the accusation he made yesterday that the Attorney General was helping government ministers avoid to avoid testifying about the Egrant inquiry.

On Friday, Delia filed his reply to a court application filed by ministers Edward Scicluna, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Cardona in which they requested the revocation of a Constitutional Court decree, issued in July, ordering them to testify in court on how they had access to quote found in the unpublished full report which did not appear in the conclusions that were made public. The ministers were due to give testimony next week.

READ ALSO: Adrian Delia accuses Attorney General of helping ministers avoid testifying about Egrant inquiry report

“As soon as summer was over, the ministers filed an application requesting the revocation of the court order for them to testify,” Delia said, “The AG, who should be interested in the truth emerging, was instead quick to come to their assistance for the truth to be hidden. They don’t want the Egrant report published.”

“I am telling the Prime Minister: it is not true you want to publish the Egrant report. If you wanted to publish it, you would have done so. The AG said there is no impediment to publishing it. But, instead, he gave it to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s wife, lawyers, his office, the Police Commissioner, members of the police force, and evidently, to these three minister, who are refusing to give testimony next Monday, despite a court order.”

Delia said his part would keep fighting in court for the truth to come to light and the full report to be published.

PN must do all it can for truth about Caruana Galizia murder to emerge

As the second anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder approaches, Delia said that, with each passing year, the government’s shortcomings kept dealing blow after blow to the emergence of the truth.

“In the coming years, we’ll be commemorating two years since the assassination of a person, first and foremost… of a mother, a woman and a journalist. […] The murder of an investigative journalist - who spoke vociferously on various things, although I am not one to speculate - is meant to silence the truth. It is clear her assassination was an attempt to hide and kill the truth. And the government’s shortcoming in finding the truth keeps killing the turth more and more each year,” he said.

“Regardless of whether we agreed with her, she didn’t deserve to be killed in such a barbaric way. We have the obligation to fight for a journalist’s right to express herself.

“Let us do all we can in Parliament and in our court to find out the whole truth and to find the mandators… for the people to know, and for justice to take place.”

On the public inquiry announced by the government into her murder, Delia said that the three people the government had chosen to be on the inquiry’s board have only served to plant doubts about their suitability.

“I appeal to the government - we cannot get it wrong, we need to get this right - we need to show the world there is still democracy in Malta,” the PN leader highlighted.

‘Little rich men’ comment means Muscat is out of touch

Regarding Malta’s economy, Delia said that, while GDP figures looked good on paper, they didn’t reflect the reality many people were living.

Muscat's comments - most recently ones he made on Sunday - that he wanted to create "little rich men" showed the Prime Minister was out of touch.

“Joseph Muscat said his government is creating little-rich men. Does he not speak with people in the streets? Does he not go to the homes of those who are suffering cannot keep up with expenses, despite working two jobs? The rich men are only those select few around Castille,” he said.

While the gap between the rich and poor continues growing, the PN would work for a society which cared, and would employ a style of politics which put people at its centre, Delia added.