Watch our summary of today’s proceedings by clicking here.
You can also read our full live blog by clicking here.
EN translation of the summary:
Anomalous country
Picture this in your head: you’ve spent decades practicing in the same sector. You’ve now become an expert who is regularly engaged by international entities like the European Commission, the United Nations, and the OSCE.
Eventually, your jetsetting across the globe brings you to Malta, a country you’ve never even heard of.
You are asked to testify about your work in relation to the biggest criminal case Malta has ever seen, only to then spend half a four-hour court hearing being accused of lying about your qualifications.
The cherry on top of the fucked up cake that is this country?
The accusations are made by a clique of criminal lawyers who are defending disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his friends, the same people who sold three hospitals and left nothing but derelict buildings behind.
Welcome to the anomaly.
I used the word ‘anomaly’ because of the remark which the expert made when she was facing off with these accusations, Miroslava Milenovic. She was testifying in her capacity as one of the experts who assisted inquiring magistrate Gabriella Vella.
Specifically, the anomaly she referred to was the fact that the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016 led to resignations across the world – except for Malta, of course.
A bit of quick revision: disgraced former health minister Konrad Mizzi and former chief of staff to the prime minister Keith Schembri were both caught opening offshore companies in Panama and New Zealand, companies which we now know were to be used to receive kickbacks.
This was not the only anomaly that Milenovic and her colleagues detected during their investigation.
She also mentioned the fact that the concession was given to Vitals Global Healthcare, which was effectively composed of a complicated network of offshore companies which offered zero visibility on their finances.
She also mentioned that the investigation she carried out was obstructed by public entities like Malta Enterprise – remember when they told us they “misplaced” the MoU? That kind of thing.
While she was answering questions from the prosecution in the first two hours of the hearing, she went into extensive detail about the myriad problems this concession had, problems which we are all too familiar with now.
By now, you must have gotten used to what I will tell you about what the defence did with the time they could use to examine Milenovic’s testimony and ask her questions about it.
Naturally, they did not speak at all about any of the things she mentioned. Instead, they spent the rest of the hearing stamping their feet and accusing Milenovic of not being qualified to do the work she was asked to do in the inquiry.
For all the relevant details, you can read our live blog on NEWZ.mt.
Catch us on NEWZWEEK next Friday.