Maltese police arrest former PM Joseph Muscat's chief of staff

Keith Schembri is under investigation for money laundering linked to sales of passports to rich foreigners

Police in Malta have arrested Keith Schembri, the former prime minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff, as part of an investigation into alleged kickbacks connected to the sale of Maltese passports.

Schembri was arrested shortly after midnight on Tuesday, hours after a court issued a wide-ranging order for all his assets and those of his family and companies to be frozen. Being questioned alongside Schembri is the high-profile Maltese accountant Brian Tonna, and one of his associates, who are also subject to the same freezing order. All three men deny wrongdoing.