Shock is being expressed across the country after 43-year-old Karl Muscat, a prosecutor at the Office of the Attorney General, was found dead on Wednesday afternoon.

The cause of death is still to be determined by an autopsy and, in the meantime, speculation among the public is running rampant. The police, at this point, however, are not excluding anything.

The police have also denied initial media reports that Muscat’s house had been found ‘turned upside down’.

Muscat’s relatives informed the police at 12.15pm on Wednesday that he had been found dead at his residence on Triq Is-Sirk, Swieqi. Muscat was declared dead on the scene by a medical team.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella is leading the inquiry.

Muscat was the son of former Nationalist MP and junior minister for telecommunications Pierre Muscat, who passed away in 1990.

Karl Muscat, like his father before him, had also entered the political fray, at least for a while. He was elected as a PN local councillor for Rabat in 2019, only to resign the position in October 2020 to be able to take up employment at the AG’s office.

In his role as a prosecutor at the AG’s Office, Muscat worked on some high-profile and potentially hazardous cases, which has increased speculation among the public. Some of those cases include:

• Leading the prosecution of shady car dealer Christian Borg and five others accused of having kidnapped a man in Rabat, threatened to cut off his fingers and rape his sister.
• Muscat had covered for colleagues on strike at the AG’s office in cases against Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri.
• He was also leading the case against former More Supermarkets owner Ryan Schembri, the cousin of disgraced former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, who had absconded to Dubai in 2014 with some €40 million in debts.
• Muscat was also involved in the prosecution of former Progress Press chairman and Allied Group director Vince Buhagiar, who was accused of laundering kickbacks from Keith Schembri’s Kasco Group.

On the same Swieqi street in July 2020, confessed middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination, Melvin Theuma, was left in critical condition after he was found stabbed several times in his home.

The police had somewhat curiously indicated it was attempted suicide before Theuma had even been hospitalised. The Shift has been asking the police questions for the last two years about the Theuma inquiry, which have only been met with silence.

Shock over Muscat’s death was also being expressed on social media, with many asking questions considering Muscat’s role in high-profile cases.

Former opposition leader Adrian Delia had one word to say on social media: “Shocked.”

Saying his “thoughts and prayers are with the Muscat family,” MEP David Casa urged the magisterial inquiry to expeditiously establish the facts, especially considering the work the lawyer has done in the interest of justice.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard offered condolences to Muscat’s family, saying, “I appeal for respect from the public towards the family, concerning ongoing investigations.”

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech paid tribute to Muscat as a “gentle and prudent man. I express our condolences on behalf of the Nationalist Party with the Muscat family for this loss.”