File photo: Protesters hold up placards and pictures of the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as they gather outside the prime minister office in Valletta, Malta on November 20, 2019. AFP / Matthew Mirabelli
Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will likely step down in January over his links to the investigation into the murder of a journalist, the Times of Malta reported, citing unidentified government sources.
The Labour Party will start the process of electing a new leader on Jan. 8, and Muscat will likely remain in power until the final selection 10 days later, the paper said. Muscat was first elected prime minister in 2013.
The party’s parliamentary group "reaffirmed full confidence” in Muscat after a meeting Sunday and planned to convene parliamentary hearings into the 2017 assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, according to a statement dated today on the party’s website.
Pressure has been mounting on Muscat after the arrest last month of a wealthy businessman, Yorgen Fenech, in connection with the murder of Caruana Galizia, who reported extensively on corruption in Malta and was killed by a car bomb. Fenech was suspected of trying to flee the country when he was apprehended on his yacht.
The murder and allegations of a political cover-up caused shock waves that Muscat has struggled to put behind him. Malta, the European Union’s smallest country, has also become the focus of money laundering concerns, after a report by the European Central Bank flagged lax controls and weak governance at Bank of Valletta, the country’s largest lender.
The government had earlier rejected Fenech’s request for immunity from prosecution in return for revealing information about the murder plot and about alleged corruption involving Muscat’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, among others, court filings showed, according to Reuters. Fenech has denied involvement in the murder.
Three men have been arrested for the assassination, but they have yet to name the person who hired them. Police gained evidence against Fenech after the recent arrest a man for an unrelated crime who offered to provide evidence in return for leniency.
