Valletta (AFP)

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, suspected of interfering with the investigation into the 2017 assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, is due to step down in January, according to sources within his Labor Party movement.

Muscat will soon announce that "there will be an election for the leadership of the party on January 18," said the sources, adding that he will "formally resign when the new leader is chosen."

In the Maltese parliamentary system, the Prime Minister is systematically the leader of the party that wins the legislative elections.

The sources did not say when, or how - perhaps during a televised speech in the country - Muscat would make an official announcement about his intentions. But they stressed that he would not stay at his post beyond January 18.

Pressure has intensified in recent days on the head of the Labor government to resign immediately from office.

The family of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the opposition (Nationalist Party) and civic movements accused him of interfering in the investigation by protecting his right-hand man and chief of staff, Keith Schembri.

- "True sponsor"? -

On the night of Thursday to Friday, Mr. Muscat announced, after a very agitated council of ministers according to witnesses, the rejection of a measure of immunity in exchange for information for Yorgen Fenech, a contractor suspected of to be one of the sponsors of the murder of the journalist, arrested on November 20 while trying to flee the archipelago on her yacht.

Mr. Fenech, co-owner of the family group Tumas (hospitality, automotive, energy) this week appointed Mr. Schembri as the "real sponsor" of the assassination.

Muscat's chief of staff resigned mid-week at the same time as Minister of Tourism Konrad Mizzi and Economy Minister Chris Cardona. Heard by the police, however, Mr. Schembri emerged free Thursday night, triggering the anger of the family Caruana Galizia.

"At least two witnesses and multiple clues implicate Schembri in the murder of our wife and mother", denounced in a statement her husband and three sons, castigating a prime minister who "continues to play the judges, the jury and the executor (of penalties) in an investigation that involves three of his closest colleagues ".

Thousands of protesters went down Friday night in the street to demand the resignation of Mr. Muscat. The sixth demonstration in two weeks, since the spectacular arrest of Fenech on November 20, while fleeing the archipelago on his luxury yacht.

"He always said he was going to leave soon and now he feels the time has come, but he wants first that (the investigation of) the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia be solved under his supervision as he had promised, "said the same Labor Party sources.

Muscat, 45, in power since 2013, is mid-term after being re-elected in June 2017 after an advance poll. The latter had been summoned because of accusations of corruption affecting his entourage after the publication of Panama Papers, which revealed the existence in Panama of many offshore accounts opened by companies and personalities around the world.

The branch of the investigation that concerned Malta had been dug by Caruana Galizia before her death in the explosion of her car bomb in October 2017. She had discovered that Panamanian companies belonging to Mr. Mizzi, then Minister of the Energy, and the chief of staff Schembri had received 2 million euros from a company in Dubai, 17 Black, for unspecified services.

The Daphne Project group, which resumed the investigation of the journalist, discovered that the 17 Black belonged to Yorgen Fenech, an information recently corroborated by the judiciary through a series of arrests for money laundering, including that of the taxi driver.

The European Parliament has announced the dispatch of a mission to Malta, on a date to be announced on Monday, because of "questions about the independence of the judiciary and serious accusations of corruption at the highest levels".

© 2019 AFP