Laundering a disgraced former prime minister’s reputation – Robert Aquilina

A month ago, TVM’s Reno Buġeja broke the news that disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, who until 11 months ago was reported by media outlets under his control as having almost been elected president of the European Commission, is now offering economic advice. Our national broadcaster informed us that an Office of Joseph Muscat exists. A few days later we saw photos of the disgraced politician coming out of Auberge de Castille following a meeting with his successor and former legal consultant Robert Abela. More recently we got to know that the disgraced former prime minister became a member, or “friend”, of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, an Azerbaijani government-funded political think tank and lobby group. The fact is that Muscat was forced out of office in disgrace. His  resignation was prompted by shocking revelations in the criminal court showing a connection between his office and the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, as well as daily mass protests held by civil society. Not to mention that he was named the ‘2019 Man of the Year in Organised Crime and Corruption’ by anti-graft investigative outlet OCCRP. Following his resignation in disgrace,...