VALLETTA, June 27(Xinhua) -- Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Thursday that he will cooperate with the Council of Europe after it endorsed a damning report calling for a public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
"I do not want to put Malta on a collision course with a European institution... but I also have the advice from the Attorney General that anything said in an inquiry could prejudice ongoing criminal proceedings against three men accused with the murder and that is a responsibility I will not shoulder," Muscat told journalists in Valletta.
Muscat said Malta will engage with the Council of Europe on the matter and said that he will be consulting with the Maltese Attorney General due to the three-month time window the country was given to set up the inquiry.
"I will not be the one responsible for a public inquiry destroying the case against the three accused," he added.
Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bombing after leaving her house in Bidnija on October 16, 2017.
Muscat has often told the press that he will call an inquiry to determine whether the murder could have been prevented, "at the appropriate time."
Meanwhile, court proceedings against three Maltese men accused of carrying out the murder continue.
Muscat said he welcomed the fact that the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly had yesterday rejected a call by a Maltese opposition MP to initiate a monitoring procedure against Malta.
Muscat also expressed his reservation about the Dutch rapporteur who steered through the Council of Europe report.
