PM and six others join Attorney General in constitutional case

Seven high profile individuals involved in the Panama appeals, including the Prime Minister, are joining the Attorney General who was the defendent in the constitutional suit filed by Simon Busuttil, asking for investigations into the Panama Papers to be handled by a different judge. The First Hall, Civil Court, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon today upheld a request by the Attorney General, which effectively means that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, together with businessmen Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Malcolm Scerri and Adrian Hillman, will now join the suit instituted by Dr Busuttil. This case constitutes the next stage in a legal saga sparked off in July when the former PN Leader had called upon a Magistrates’ Court to launch an investigation into the revelations emerging from the Panama Papers involving several high profile Maltese figures. Magistrate Ian Farrugia, presiding over the case, had decreed that the prerequisites for an inquiry had been met. This effectively meant that he would lead a magisterial inquiry to establish whether money-laundering laws had been breached by government...