Potential Muscat immunity will not be impediment to justice

“The JURI Committee is responsible for waiving the immunity of MEPs accused of wrongdoing,” MEP David Casa explained. “If Muscat thinks that he can use parliamentary immunity as an extra layer of protection, I will be the first to ensure that the process to strip it away is launched expediently, if necessary by becoming a member of the JURI Committee if re-elected.”

Casa was reacting to concerns that disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat was seeking election to the European Parliament in an attempt to acquire immunity from prosecution of crimes for which he is currently under investigation.

“The biggest obstacle to justice should Muscat decide to run and get elected will not be parliamentary immunity, which is not a carte blanche to break the law,” Casa argued. “It will still be the captured institutions and the ineffectual law-enforcement system that continues to protect the corrupt.

"This is the agenda that Muscat is keen to perpetuate by threatening a political comeback, to pressure the government to protect him and deny justice to the people of Malta and Gozo.

“In the seventh year since Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated, the state has not been able to secure justice for any instance of wrongdoing inflicted on the Maltese.

“Instead, in a bizarre twist from Cuckooland, Joseph Muscat feels comfortable enough to ostentatiously launder his reputation when he should be behind bars.”

Casa noted that Joseph Muscat was not only voted the most corrupt person of the year, but remains an exceedingly rare example of a being a politician who faced open calls for his resignation and scathing condemnations from the European Parliament, also supported by the Progressive Alliance of the Socialists and Democrats, his own party.

“Not even Poland or Hungary have had governments credited with creating a climate in which the assassination of a journalist was made possible,” Casa noted. “Joseph Muscat retains the dishonour of having been condemned by this Parliament and I will not stand to see him attempt to launder his reputation and sabotage justice in such an unabashed manner.”