2019 Malta political crisis

A political and institutional crisis within the Republic of Malta followed the uncovering of links between government officials and the 2017 assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

On 1 December 2019, the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced his intention to resign[5] on 12 January 2020[6] after increased pressure from 2019 Maltese protests.

[11] Among other things, Caruana Galizia wrote about gifts and money from the presidential family in Azerbaijan to Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat,[12] his wife and connections between opposition leader Adrian Delia and a prostitution ring in London.

Yorgen Fenech's "17 Black" company had spent millions on offshore accounts of several Labour Government ministers, evidence was found only after Caruana Galizia´s murder.

In September 2020, Schembri was re-arrested on a money laundering charge,[27] a court order froze his assets and an administrator was appointed to run his businesses.

Melvin Theuma is a taxi-driver from Valletta[33] linked to criminal enterprises and was arrested in November 2019 in connection with a separate anti-money laundering investigation.

[15] Theuma had made and retained secret recordings of conversations which he had with him when he was arrested for running an illegal lottery on 14 November 2019, he then used these as leverage to get the Police Commissioner, Attorney General and the Prime Minister to agree to the terms of a presidential pardon within a day of his arrest, with Joseph Muscat signing the agreement to the pardon some three days later without discussing the matter with his cabinet, as per the norm.

[41] Journalists in 2018 provided a possible link with the Degiorgio brothers, and in November 2019 a letter purportedly from Schembri was passed to Fenech which may have been an attempt to frame Cardona for the murder of Caruana Galizia.

They demanded the immediate resignation of the prime minister, stipulating that his remaining in power was not to be tolerated by all who cared about justice: "His role in investigating the murder of our wife and mother is unlawful.

"[43] On 16 October 2017, the investigative journalist Caruana Galizia died in a car bomb attack close to her home,[44][45] attracting widespread local and international reactions.

[48] In 2015, Caruana Galizia exposed a Ponzi scheme, investigated by the FBI, involving Maltese companies owned by two daughters of John Dalli, a former Nationalist Party Minister in Malta until 2004 and European Commissioner from 2010 until forced to resign in 2012 over allegations of a €60 million bribe.

"[11] On 19 November 2019, Muscat announced a deal with star-witness Melvin Theuma who would provide comprehensive information about the murder case and other crimes, while he receives immunity.

[36] On 25 November 2019, star witness Melvin Theuma was granted immunity from prosecution by President George Vella at the request of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

[74] On the same day, Reporters sans Frontieres, together with the relatives of Caruana Galizia, filed a lawsuit against three of the alleged key figures in the murder case in France.

[79] The then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had claimed on 1 December 2019 that the power station issue was the reason for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

[80] The links seeming to connect the Azerbaijani figures, Electro Gas, Fenech, 17 Black, two Panama corporations, Schembri and Mizzi are still being investigated.

[82] A December 2014 visit by Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi resulted in the signing of a memorandum to buy liquid natural gas (LNG) for 18 years from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic SOCAR as fuel for a new power station in Malta.

[87] Mizzi also arranged for deferred penalties of €18 million due from Electrogas for power station delays, getting Enemalta to agree receipts over 18 years at 2% interest.

After a board meeting on Enemalta in January 2015, a Seychelles company Cifidex entered into an agreement with the Spanish consortium licensed to run the 46 MW wind farm to buy the shares for 2.9 million euros.

[95] Healthcliff Farrugia former Malta Gaming Authority CEO colluded with Fenech to hide money laundering issues within Tumas in 2018 resulting in no notification about the breaches uncovered during the inspection were ever made public.

Mr. Theuma said he landed the job after meeting Keith Schembri in April 2017 and being given a guided tour of the Auberge de Castille including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's offices,[106] but never turned up for work, he continued to receive a salary of around 1,200 Euros a month.

[108] Keith Schembri was amongst those arrested in September 2020[27] in relation to allegations that he took a €100,000 kickback on passport sales to three wealthy Russians, from his auditor Brian Tonna.

[113] Three Ministers at the time, Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi, face investigation regarding Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) which took control of three hospitals under a contract to last for 30 years in 2015.

[120] In July 2020 the Auditor General, Charles Deguara published his report into the Vitals concession tender, concluding that it should have been scrapped, having found there was collusion between the government and the private investors who won the contract.

[121] Court hearings have backed the government in cancelling the hospitals contract which it called fraudulent and declared that Vitals/Steward actions regarding the $100m side letter are possibly criminal.

[126] In June 2018, the Constitutional Court had ordered Valletta's removal from the murder case, due to conflicts by being married to a government minister and being on the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit board of Governors.

[126] His wife, Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana lost her ministerial position in January 2020 after a film emerged of Silvio Valletta inside Yorgen Fenech's Rolls-Royce.

In 2017, Azzopardi accepted a free 3 day stay at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv, paid for by Ray Fenech through the Tumas Group.

[133] By resolution, two weeks later, the European Parliament said it was deeply concerned about the integrity and credibility of the investigation into the death of Caruana Galizia, who had exposed the shady financial dealings of Maltese elite and was subsequently murdered with a car bomb in October 2017.

The European Parliament then called on Malta's prime minister, Joseph Muscat, to quit immediately over his handling of the investigation into the murder of the journalist.