Watch our summary of today’s proceedings by clicking here.
You can also read our full live blog by clicking here.
Read an English translation of the clip below:
If you have the slightest interest in the concept of justice, what happened earlier today in court ought to give you a slight glimmer of hope for this country’s future.
In the case of the Republic of Malta v disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his former associates and colleagues, the prosecution’s lawyers made a significant contribution to the case towards the end of the sitting, something which so far, we hadn’t seen enough of.
Specifically, this contribution was made by the lead prosecutor on the case, Francesco Refalo. I hasten to add this because I don’t want you to think that attorney general Victoria Buttigieg bothered to show up in court. From her, we haven’t heard a word, and we haven’t heard from police commissioner Angelo Gafa’, either.
Refalo insisted that the amount of evidence at hand clearly shows that there is evidence of criminal evidence, to a degree which surpasses the threshold necessary for the case to proceed to the next stage.
He substantiated his argument by citing court precedent which established that, if there is doubt about the innocence of the accused, the magistrate that is presiding over the case should proceed to the next stage.
Refalo then referred directly to the accused and the evidence at hand. Referring to the voluminous report compiled by the inquiring magistrate, the two court decrees which described the hospitals concession as fraudulent, and the reports compiled by the National Audit Office, he also mentioned the evidence which shows that money meant to go for our hospitals was diverted elsewhere.
Among other things, he mentioned how taxpayer money that went to Steward Healthcare was used for a private loan to a company that was secretly acquired by former VGH investors – Technoline – after which they gave a contract to this same company to supply medical equipment to their own hospitals.
On the other side of the hall, we heard a lot from defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, who questioned a total of 15 witnesses. These witnesses consisted of various professionals from various industries who were engaged with various aspects of the Cyclotron project, which was also mentioned a lot in yesterday’s hearing.
We encourage you to go to our live blog so you can read more about what these witnesses said, what argument the defence lawyer made based on what they said, and the context in which it was all said.
See you tomorrow.
