Claims about Muscat’s request for immunity are not new – former editor

In 2020, Chris Fearne refused to give disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat a guarantee that he would keep Steward Health Care in Malta and give Muscat immunity, former PN MP Jason Azzopardi claimed on Friday.

Azzopardi said on Smash TV he had received this information from then Labour Party deputy leader and health minister Fearne himself – a few months after the Labour Party’s leadership election in 2020.

“Chris told me that from that day on, Muscat began working all out in favour of Robert Abela” during the campaign, Jason Azzopardi said.

‘I can vouch’ – David Lindsay

Jason Azzopardi’s “bombshell” was not a rushed publication based on recently obtained information, journalist and former Malta Independent editor David Lindsay said on Facebook.

Lindsay said he can vouch that Azzopardi “has had full knowledge of the nefarious offer for well over two and a half years”.

“As a journalist investigating the daylight robbery that was the Vitals-Steward deal, Azzopardi passed that information on to me in confidence over two and a half years ago and it has been kept under wraps ever since…until now”, Lindsay said.

Undoubtedly there were others with first-hand knowledge who needed to come forward as soon as possible, the journalist urged.

Cover Image Montage: The Shift / Times of Malta