Vitals saga: Court declares senior politicians Chris Fearne, Edward Scicluna to face trial

On Wednesday (today), the Magistrates’ Court ruled that former Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and Central Bank Governor Edward Scicluna, along with 12 other individuals will face trial in relation to the ongoing Vitals hospitals’ scandal.

During trial, the prominent political figures will be questioned about their alleged involvement in the fraudulent privatisation of three state hospitals.

As done previously, the court upheld a €20 million freezing order on other parties who will be facing trial. Furthermore, every defendant will indicate their phone numbers and email with a personal guarantee of €10,000 to make sure that they abide by the conditions imposed by the court.

Mr Fearne had resigned in May, despite Prime Minister’s Abela’s request to reconsider, and had backed down from his nomination for EU Commission. Dr Abela had insisted that he would renominate Mr Fearne if the court does not find prima facie evidence to indict him.

Therefore, today’s decree quashed any possibility of Mr Fearne to have his name in the race for Commissioner.

On the other hand, Governor Scicluna had been asked by journalists and the Opposition to resign. However, he had argued that neither the Government, not the Opposition, nor civil society could ask for his resignation.

“A minister’s position is the prerogative of the Prime Minister, while the role of Governor is governed by the EU Treaty and European Central Bank (ECB) statutes,” he said.

In agreement with this reasoning, the Prime Minister had said that he will not be requesting his resignation, despite the criminal charges.

Earlier in June, the court also found sufficient grounds to indict former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, former Minister Konrad Mizzi and former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri in the same case.

They are facing criminal charges that include corruption, fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.  

Malta’s business community described charges as ‘dangerous’ and ‘unacceptable’. At the time they also criticised Prime Minister Abela’s response to the situation as ‘an attack on the judiciary.’

The next hearing is set to take place in August as Magistrate Leonard Caruana urged the prosecution to keep up the pace in these proceedings.