Keith Schembri should be prosecuted immediately, Caruana Galizia family says

The Caruana Galizia family is urging the Maltese authorities to immediately prosecute Keith Schembri and uncover why the Prime Minister protected him for three years.

In a statement released by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, the family also urged Europol to provide the necessary support to help investigators who are “following the money trail of the Malta-Azerbaijan money laundering network”, especially the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is significant because two Dubai-registered companies - 17 Black and Macbridge - were listed as target clients for the Panama companies opened by Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. 17 Black belongs to Yorgen Fenech, who is being investigated for his role in the Caruana Galizia murder, while the owner of Macbridge remains unknown.

“As the authorities finally turn to Schembri, we urge them to uncover why Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has protected him and Konrad Mizzi for three years. The failure to prosecute Schembri, Mizzi and their protectors had fatal consequences for our wife and mother.

If that failure continues, it will have fatal consequences for Malta’s democracy,” the family said.

Schembri resigned from his post of chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister on Tuesday morning when he was also questioned by the police.

It is unclear as yet what the police are questioning him about but in a statement released on Tuesday the police said more people were being interrogated in relation to the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.