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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 APRIL 2017 2 News ENDGAME ON PANAMA? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The proof, she claims, was a declaration of trust – a document provided by auditors Nexia BT to Pilatus Bank showing Muscat as the UBO of Egrant – that was removed from a safe inside the Whitehall Mansions offices of the bank in March 2016. The information has trickled out in bits and pieces, the narrative beefed up as events unfolded. But what she says suggests that a clean-out of in- criminating evidence took place after she broke news of the secret offshore companies belonging to Mizzi and Schembri that year. She says the document has been "scanned and uploaded to the cloud" but she has only repro- duced the text of the alleged document and yes- terday refused to testify in the magisterial inquiry investigating the allegations. Those who accuse PN leader Simon Busuttil of being joined at the hip to Caruana Galizia, saw him evading a clear answer to Muscat's question on Xarabank whether he endorsed the text she has reproduced. Muscat insists it is fabricated; Busut- til prefers focusing on the institutional crisis Mus- cat presides over, comically illustrated by the inept Commissioner of Police on his way to eat rabbit at a restaurant instead of swooping on the Pilatus offices. Today, the Nationalist Party will lead a national demonstration calling for the Prime Minister to resign. But a press conference given by Busuttil yesterday indicated he was unsure about giving any additional weight to the alleged document Caruana Galizia says exists. His performance on Xarabank on Friday suggests that only Caruana Galizia has seen the incriminating document. The magisterial inquiry, requested by the Prime Minister, is mandated under the Criminal Code, granting the magistrate the power to investigate to the fullest of powers. So yesterday's announce- ment by Daphne Caruana Galizia that she would not testify, insisting that the onus was not on her to provide the proof of what she alleged, opened a scenario in which she could ultimately be forced to testify under arrest – if the magistrate so willed. Caruana Galizia says that journalists should not be forced to speak to an inquiring magistrate or the police, given that they depend on the full trust of their sources "by doing nothing that might make them fear they are breaching confidentiality and putting them at risk, even just the appearance of it". In the past this newspaper gave evidence to the police on various cases it had reported, including the Enemalta oil scandal, the FTS inquiry in 2004, the Sheehan inquiry that led to the sacking of the home affairs minister, and recently the Capital- One and Bogdanovic inquiries. Busuttil was not forthcoming yesterday when asked whether Caruana Galizia should testify, es- pecially due to the impression that she has seen the incontrovertible proof of the Muscats' culpa- bility. "That's not for me to answer, ask her…". Busuttil's slamming of the magisterial inquiry was marked by his declaration yesterday that the prime minister now had a conflict, for it was he who was "under investigation" by the inquiry he had himself requested; and that crucial evidence could have been removed from the premises of Pilatus Bank on the night the allegation was pub- lished (even though, Caruana Galizia yesterday herself claimed that the document in question was removed from the Pilatus safe, unceremoniously kept inside the kitchen at the time, back in 2016). Busuttil now calls the magisterial inquiry a "co- lossal cover-up" but told journalists yesterday he has trust in Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, yet insists any evidence at Pilatus was removed in the hours before Muscat requested a magisterial inquiry; the image conjured being that of Pilatus chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, emerging at night from the bank's back-door exit with two suitcases. Syed claims he had landed in Malta from a flight and headed straight to the bank. Yesterday's press conference by both leaders drew new battle lines: Muscat insists the text re- produced from the alleged declaration of trust is a fabrication, containing errors of Egrant's address – Panama not Nexia's San Gwann address – and his wife's birthplace. But critics believe this is just pedantry. His de- tractors feel that his impassioned defence, libel suits, and request for the magisterial inquiry that should have kicked off back in 2016, is over-com- pensation for guilt. But the prime minister would have been damned anyway if he let the bold assertion that his wife had received $1 million from the Aliyev family, osten- sibly through Egrant and a foreign bank account, pass. If the investigative magistrate is after an elusive document in which Nexia's Brian Tonna would have told Pilatus Bank that the ultimate benefi- ciary is Michelle Muscat, would that evidence only be in the 'cloud' Caruana Galizia said this docu- ment had been uploaded to? Or would it be in the transactions she alleged had taken place between Azerbaijan and Malta, fa- cilitated by Pilatus, which Muscat insists would be recorded by correspondent banks who processed the international payments? A battle of perceptions is being fought out here, between a prime minister whose administration will forever be tarnished by the Panama Papers and a crisis of governance, and the bold allegations of a blogger and a political party insisting that Muscat is truly the owner of Egrant. As for the battle for truth: it is the magiste- rial inquiry that will establish whether the circumstantial or full evidence exists of Azerbaijani money and secret compa- nies. The glut of information, daily state- ments from parties, and a vibrant social media will do much to sway emo- tions and gut feelings. But facts, surely, are still sacred. TIM DIACONO MALTA Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia yesterday refused to give testimony to a magisterial inquiry that was launched to investigate her recent allega- tions that Michelle Muscat is the ultimate beneficial owner of the secret offshore Pan- ama company Egrant. MaltaToday understands that the mag- isterial inquiry, regulated by the Criminal Code, can also summon witnesses to testify under arrest if they refuse. In a blogpost, Caruana Galizia said the in- quiry led by magistrate Aaron Bugeja, was a "sham" given that it was only ordered hours after evidence was removed from the offices of Nexia BT and Pilatus Bank, she claimed. She was referring to a scene where after a press conference given by Joseph Mus- cat, Pilatus Bank chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad emerged from the back-door exit of the bank's Whitehall Mansions offic- es in Ta' Xbiex carrying two suitcases, under the glare of a Net News cameraman. Caruana Galizia has also claimed that the declaration of trust whose text she repro- duced on her blog, was removed from the bank's safe in March 2016, when the Pana- ma Papers broke in Malta. A magisterial inquiry is carried out not by the "court" but by a magistrate acting in an investigative capacity, the main purpose being to preserve the material traces of an offence. Caruana Galizia said that a police officer from the Fraud Squad rang her at 11am yesterday to speak to Magistrate Bugeja at the Courts of Justice at noon. "I told her this was impossible, that I was working, and that it is only the subjects of an investigation, not others, who can be ordered to drop every- thing and go immediately for interrogation, and even then, they have to be under arrest because otherwise it is by mutually conveni- ent appointment." Caruana Galizia said that if the inquiring magistrate wanted to speak to her about matters related to an inquiry, "given that I am not the subject of the inquiry then the proper procedure is for him to write to me formally, and then I will in turn formally respond to the request, through my lawyer, explaining that any such meeting would be pointless, because everything that I wish to report is already on my website and the rest is covered by the law on the protection of journalists' sources." The police officer rang her back soon after to tell her that she had an order to go in at noon, and that the police could drive past her house to pick her up to save time. "I replied that they would most certainly not do anything of the sort, that I had al- ready explained why it would be out of the question for me to drop everything and come running, and that if the magistrate wished to jump through hoops to conclude everything quickly because that's what the Prime Minister wants, then he could jump through hoops alone because I wasn't going to jump with him. Nor was I going to allow a police car to pick me up because we don't live in Zimbabwe." She added that journalists shouldn't be forced to speak to an inquiring magistrate or to the police, given that they depend on the full trust of their sources "by doing nothing that might make them fear they are breaching confidentiality and putting them at risk, even just the appearance of it". Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife Michelle testified in front of the magis- trate yesterday morning as part of the mag- isterial inquiry he asked to be launched. "Today my wife and myself gave our testi- mony to clear our name from the dirt that has been directed towards us. We answered all questions truthfully and we hope that the court's work is finalised in the shortest time possible so that we can clear our name," Muscat said. Muscat insisted this was "the biggest po- litical frame-up in Maltese history" and confirmed that he will request the Attorney General to give him a copy of the inquiry's findings upon its conclusion, and that he in- tends to publish the findings in full. Keith Schembri, the Prime Minister's chief of staff and the owner of the Panama com- pany Tillgate Inc, gave his testimony shortly after Muscat. On Friday, magistrate Aaron Bugeja and police officials were at the offices of Pilatus Bank at Whitehall Mansions in Gzira. Nexi- aBT's offices in San Gwann were also visited by the magisterial inquiry yesterday morn- ing. Caruana Galizia refuses to testify, 'meeting magistrate would be pointless' THE ALLEGATIONS Saturday, 15 April 2017 at 11:36am Daphne Caruana Galizia says she has discovered who owns Egrant, which was put into dissolution a few days earlier. She says she has info on several movements of very large sums of money from the bank account of a company owned by PEPs in Azerbaijan to bank accounts held by Egrant, Hearnville and Tillgate. The blogger said that a Maltese bank, set up after 2013, was used to move the money. Wednesday, 19 April 2017 at 7:00pm Caruana Galizia says a company owned by Leyla Aliyeva, one of the two daughters of Ilham Aliyev, ruler of Azerbaijan, transferred "loan payments", to Hearnville Inc, Tillgate Inc and Egrant Inc last year. She said the company – Al Sahra FZCO – is incorporated in Dubai's free zone, with Aliyeva as the ultimate beneficial owner. The payments were made through Al Sahra FZCO's account at Pilatus Bank. Thursday 20 April 2017 at 4:41pm Caruana Galizia says that in March 2016, Al Sahra FZCO paid US$1.017 million to Egrant in the form of a "loan payment" from Al Sahra's account at Pilatus Bank in Malta, to an account Egrant Inc holds with a bank in Dubai. She said the transaction was so large that Pilatus Bank's US correspondent bank stopped it and that it only went through after several days of negotiations. Other "loan payments" of around US$100,000 each were made twice a week over several weeks in January, February and March 2016, and that the bank account opening form for Al Sahra at Pilatus Bank identified Leyla Aliyeva as the ultimate beneficial owner of the company. Payment instructions for Al Sahra were given by Farnoush Farsian, she said. Thursday, 20 April 2017 at 7:59pm Caruana Galizia says documents in the possession of Pilatus Bank include declarations of trust showing shares in Egrant Inc are held by Mossack Fonseca nominees for "Mrs Michelle Muscat". She says the declarations were provided to the bank by Brian Tonna (of Nexia BT), as a prerequisite for opening an account for Egrant, for which the identity of the ultimate beneficial owner is required. "Mrs Muscat's name is also given on another document held in the bank's safe: the account opening form for Egrant Inc.," he said. She says all the documents had been scanned and uploaded to the cloud, for security purposes, by third parties so that they could not be destroyed by the bank. She also says that Pilatus Bank had moved a safe, full of top-secret documents, from the CEO's office to the kitchen, allegedly containing documents of PEPs such as John Dalli and Keith Schembri. Friday, 21 April 2017 at 12:04am Caruana Galizia reproduces the text of the alleged declaration of trust that shows Michelle Muscat described as the beneficial owner of Egrant; she also says that Negarin Sadr Hasheminejad – sister of the Pilatus chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad – received a US$1 million loan from the bank in March 2015. Of that loan $400,000 wen to a bank account held by "a Maltese woman who lives in New York and has a jewellery business called Buttardi" – the costume jewellery business set up by Michelle Buttigieg in partnership with Michelle Muscat in 2003. Buttigieg was controversially appointed "Malta's tourism representative" in the United States in 2013. Daphne Caruana Galizia: the blogger's bold claims are now the subject of a magisterial inquiry, but she has already refused to testify