Ex-Muscat aide Schembri denies corruption charges

A former top government aide in Malta who was investigated by a journalist later killed by a car bomb was arraigned in a Maltese court on charges of money-laundering, fraud and corruption.

Keith Schembri, who was chief of staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, entered a not-guilty plea to the charges, which stem from an investigation of alleged financial crimes going back years.

Schembri, for years one of Malta's more politically influential figures, was denied bail and jailed after Saturday's arraignment.

Also arraigned were 10 other defendants.

Maltese government officials on Sunday confirmed the development in the case, widely reported by Maltese media.

Schembri resigned from his job in 2019.

Muscat himself resigned shortly after.

Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia implicated Schembri in cases of alleged corruption before she was killed in Malta in 2017.

Schembri stepped down from his government post after media reports linked him and two then-ministers to the probe of the bombing.

Schembri and the former ministers have denied any wrongdoing.

One of the late journalist's sons, Paul Caruana Galizia, in a tweet called Schembri's arraignment "just extraordinary."

He added that the defendant for years had "accused my mother of using forged documents to implicate him in corruption cases."

In her blog, the journalist wrote boldly about corruption and investigated the financial affairs of Maltese politicians and business figures.

Caruana Galizia had written that corruption was rife in Malta's business and political circles.

She had reported receiving threats shortly before she was slain.

The killing triggered international calls, including from within the European Union, for accountability.