Julian Delia summarizes today’s court hearing in the case of the fraudulent hospitals concession
The Cyclotron Saga
As we enter the third week of the case of the Republic of Malta v disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his former associates and colleagues, political observers following court proceedings are eyeing the defence’s strategy closely.
This morning, we spoke to Malta Today’s senior court reporter Matthew Agius. In a brief comment, he expressed his concerns about the lack of direct involvement from the police, a theme which is already familiar to those who followed our reporting on this case. This lack of involvement is leading to more opportunities for the defence to try and undermine the prosecution’s argument.
In a post on social media, the honorary president of Repubblika Robert Aquilina said that the fact that defence lawyers’ arguments are based on procedural points might mean that “they are trying to look for flaws which do not exist” and that, because of this, the case “must be a solid one”.
Time will tell us more about what exactly the prosecution’s evidence consists of once the first part of the evidence gathering stage is concluded.
We heard a total of five witnesses today – Josie Muscat, the owner of St James Hospital who the inquiry report referred to as a front for former VGH shareholder and one of the accused Shaukat Ali, was the most significant one.
Muscat’s involvement relates to the acquisition process of a Cyclotron, a machine that is used to create chemicals used in cancer treatment. This acquisition was beset by loads of problems because both Vitals and Steward Healthcare failed to give the necessary financial push to ensure the machine is used in an adequate span of time.
Muscat denied what was said about him in the inquiry report and insisted that he never discussed the acquisition of the Cyclotron project with any representative of the companies involved in the concession.
There were so many problems with the acquisition of this machine that another one of the witnesses – Chief Officer of Malta Enterprise’s Corporate Services, Joseph Zammit – confirmed that Malta Enterprise effectively had to invest taxpayer money to ensure this machine is actually used.
The first witness we hear was also significant – former police inspector Anthony Scerri. He insisted that the only investigative work carried out by the police corps occurred strictly under the inquiring magistrate’s orders.
