Joseph Muscat faces corruption charges as part of the hospital privatisation scandal, according to The Guardian.
The scandal was once investigated by murdered investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. According to the documents, Muscat faces charges of accepting bribes, corruption in public office and money laundering. He called the charges “fantasies and lies,” claiming he was the victim of political revenge.
Muscat denied the allegations on Tuesday.
Without even questioning me, the authorities decided to smear me and accuse me of corruption, money laundering, establishing a criminal organisation, and even claiming I took €30m. It will be my pleasure to dismantle each of these accusations and show how they are not built just on fantasies, but also on lies.
Chris Fearne, Malta’s deputy prime minister who might become Malta’s next European commissioner, and the country’s former finance minister Edward Scicluna, now governor of Malta’s central bank, were charged with fraud, misappropriation and fraudulent gains.
The charges are part of a long-running investigation into the decision by Muscat’s then Labour government in 2015 to hand over management of three public hospitals to private company Vitals Global Healthcare under a deal. Conservative estimates put the deal at €4 billion (£3.4 billion). Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist, wrote about the acquisition before she was killed in a car bombing in 2017.
In February 2024, a court annulled a privatisation deal between the Maltese government and Vitals Global Healthcare, later Steward Health Care, after discovering evidence of fraud. In response to the judgement, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation stated that the decision confirmed her “extensive reporting about the fraudulent deal.”
Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, who succeeded Muscat as leader of the country’s Labour Party, expressed doubts about the corruption investigation, as the charges were brought a month before the European Parliament elections. In response, civil society group Repubblika stated:
The prime minister’s conduct amounts to a gross assault on judicial independence and the rule of law. We will resist this attack.
