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 clip:
Closed doors
Secrets are a boon to someone who has something to hide. For any other person, secrets are divisive, confusing obstacles that create categories: those who know, and those who do not.
Whoever has an interest in exonerating themselves from accusations they face in court can only play one card if they wish to truly protest their innocence – concrete evidence that shows that those accusations have no basis in reality.
So, why did disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat refuse to give access to his phone after it was seized as evidence by the inquiry’s investigators?
This is the question everybody is asking after today’s hearing in the hospitals case.
Court expert Keith Cutajar – who, incidentally, we did not hear a word of criticism about – informed the court that he is currently occupied with extracting data from Muscat’s phone.
The expert said that, since the phone is protected by a passcode they don’t have, this process can take up to another ten months to complete. Effectively, the expert is using a programme that tries out hundreds of thousands of possible passwords until it eventually stumbles on the passcode Muscat doesn’t want to give them.
In simple terms, it’s like a dentist trying to pull a patient’s tooth out while they’re keeping their mouth shut.
So, we must ask – is this the same prime minister who we’ve heard say that he has nothing to hide and that he never did any of the things he is being accused of doing?
To be clear, there are some who have valid reasons to resist providing access to authorities when it comes to private data. A journalist is obliged to defend their sources, for example, so we have every right to provide limited access to information in our possession, especially if our source is running a risk by being exposed.
Like every other fundamental right, however, the right to privacy is not without exceptions.
If you seized the prime minister’s throne for eight years and left a horrible stench of corruption with everything you’ve ever touched, the public’s right to know trumps your right to hide whatever it is you’ve got on your phone.
We’ll be back tomorrow after the next hearing.