Superintendent Antonovitch Muscat told the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry that the United Arab Emirates have not cooperated in the investigation to get to the bottom of the 17 Black/Hearnville/Tillgate revelations. It is not a dissimilar complaint from the one made by then Magistrate Aaron Bugeja who got no answer from Dubai when he was trying to establish whether Maria Efimova’s claim that Ilham Aliyev’s daughter used her Dubai company to pay bribes into Michelle Muscat’s company in Panama could be verified.
Officer Muscat says a meeting was due to be held in December between Europol and the Emirati authorities to try to get them to help. He says the Emirati side cancelled the meeting at the last minute.
It has to be asked. Was this development in any way connected with Joseph Muscat’s whirlwind visit to Dubai last December? Surely the very short visit cannot have been a holiday. Especially considering that was one of Joseph Muscat’s very last weeks in office.
Mr Muscat told the court today no officer would bring a case to the courts unless they were 100% sure they could prove the crime. While they make up their minds though these quasi, less than 100%, suspects are flying here, there and everywhere making sure nothing ever happens to them.