PN leader Adrian Delia publishes Egrant magisterial report in full

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has announced he will publish the entire magisterial inquiry into the secret Panamanian company Egrant.

The magisterial inquiry had determined there was no conclusive proof that the company was owned by the spouse of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, as alleged by the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

LINK TO THE EGRANT REPORT

“I am disgusted that people who had an office inside Castille could have been prosecuted on suspicions of corruption,” Delia said, without referring to anyone in particular.

Delia had taken the conclusions of the Egrant inquiry in 2018 as the basis for removing Simon Busuttil from his role as good governance spokesperson.

Speaking in a live broadcast a day after having received a copy of the 1,400-page inquest report from the Egrant magisterial inquiry, Delia said he would be publishing the report in its entirety.

“The Egrant report shows that the authorities had to take steps. Instead they shirked their duties and did not take steps according to law, this means Muscat and Bonnici have been for the past 18 months knew there were investigations to be done, and did not do anything, with the consequence that important evidence could have been hidden,” Delia said.

The inquiry’s conclusions was published in 2018 but despite the prime minister’s insistence that the report should be published in full, the Attorney General withheld publication. Delia subsequently petitioned the courts to have the report released to him, which case he finally won through the decision of an Appeals Court.

Delia today said that as Opposition leader, while having been told by the Courts not to publish it, his legal advice was that there was nothing stopping him from publishing it in its entirety.

“The PN parliamentary group has agreed, without having read the report, that the report should be published in full for the entire truth to emerge,” Delia said.

Karl Cini may have lied under oath and should be investigated - Egrant report

The Egrant report indicates that Karl Cini could have lied under oath, with the inquiring magistrate saying the Nexia BT partner should be investigated by the police.

The matter revolves around sworn testimony Cini gave regarding the setting up of offshore companies. which did not tally with the findings of a forensic accounting firm.

Cini had been called to give testimony before the inquiry, led by then magistrate Aaron Bugeja, on 5 May 2007.

Under oath, he had said that he had set up three companies in Panama.

An investigation by Forensic Accountants Harbinson Forensics, who were hired for the purposes of the inquiry, found however that Cini had set up a fourth company in Panama, Real Trade Investments Global Corp.

In his testimony, Cini had said that Real Trade Investments had been set up in the British Virgin Islands, which the forensic firm found out was untrue.

In his testimony, Cini claimed he had set up four companies in the BVI: Comerco, Durellie, Real Trade Investments and Willerby.

The forensic firm’s investigation found that Real Trade Investments was set up in Panama, not the BVI.

Moreover, the firm found that Cini had also set up another seven companies in the BVI which he failed to mention: Colson, Selson, SPX, Blue Sea, Torbridge and Berdil.

In light of this, the inquiring magistrate said the Police Commissioner should investigate the discrepancy in Cini’s testimony since the documentary evidence shows prima facie that he might have lied under oath.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Karl Cini said that the authorities had “indeed clarified the concerns highlighted in the report and it transpired that the said discrepancies were due to misunderstandings during the magisterial inquiry. For the sake of clarity, the clarifications requested did not relate to the main subject matter of the report, i.e. Egrant Inc.”

Labour Party reacts

The Labour Party has reacted to Adrian Delia’s decision to publish the full Egrant report.

In a statement, the PL said that Delia will only prove the fabricated lie by his “friends” in the party, calling the Egrant allegations the “worst political frame up in the country’s history”.

In the statement, the PL also said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat never had an issue with publishing the report, but chose to wait for the conclusion in the case filed by Adrian Delia himself.

“The Prime Minister immediately began a process to see that the report is published without affecting the investigation, while ensuring the protection of details belonging to people who were not related to the case,” the statement read.

The statement also read that Delia did not want to wait for this process to be seen through, “because he wants to disrupt investigations in order to defend the wrong carried out by the PN, which created and pushed this political frame-up.”

The PL also said that Delia will be disrupting on-going investigations while preaching for justice.

“There will come a time when he will have to shoulder responsibility for his actions,” the statement read.