It is the Attorney-General, not the Commissioner of Police, who gives the go-ahead for prosecution in serious crimes

One of the most scandalously deceiving statements which the Prime Minister made, in a week that was spectacularly and unusually full of them, was that it is up to the Police to decide whether to act on the prosecution request made by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

And of course, he avoided using the word ‘prosecution’ and just said ‘act’, because these are his friends Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and their associates we are talking about.

He’s lying, of course. It is the Attorney-General who gives the go-ahead for the police to begin the process for indictment on serious crimes. The Police seeks advice from the Attorney-General and the Attorney-General signs off on it or doesn’t.

And here’s the thing: the Attorney-General is also chairman of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, which has requested prosecution. The Attorney-General is now in duty bound to instruct the Police to begin the indictment/prosecution process, as requested by the investigative authority which he himself chairs.

And journalists should be chasing the Attorney-General, not the Police Commissioner, for answers on why he is failing to follow through, in his role as Attorney-General, on a prosecution request and investigation report made by the FIAU.

Peter Grech, the chairman of the board of governors of Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, who is also the Attorney-General, in a box at the theatre with the Justice Minister, Owen Bonnici, and the Minister’s girlfriend, Janice Bartolo, a propagandist employed by the Labour Party.