Mizzi, Scicluna, Cardona don’t need to testify on Egrant inquiry details, court decrees

The Constitutional Court has upheld the application filed by Ministers Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi to overturn a decree ordering them to be summoned to testify over their citation of details pertaining to the as yet unpublished Egrant inquiry report which were not part of the extract published last year, in a case pertaining to the deal pertaining to the Vitals Global Healthcare deal.

In a brief judgment handed down from chambers yesterday afternoon, the Constitutional Court, presided over by Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri, observed that the request to avoid testifying was intended to safeguard the confidentiality of the acts of the inquiry and to protect their interests as potential defendants, being “suspected persons” in the inquiry.

On the subject of the inquiry’s confidentiality, the judges said that the same court had already provided for and upheld the request to present witnesses and documents relating to the inquiry. The ministers had no legitimate right to contest that decision as they are not parties to the case.

But the same could not be said for the second reason, said the court. “The applicants cannot be forced to answer questions when the answers could land them under criminal proceedings. Once the applicants are “suspected persons” they have the right not to answer to things tied to that case.”

The court said its task was to, insofar as possible, reconcile the conflicting legitimate interests of the plaintiff and that of the applicants. The interest of the plaintiff was to show that the ministers had in fact quoted from the Egrant inquiry in order to base his arguments on this fact, said the court. But to do so, neither did they require the ministers to testify, nor present their full replies – only the parts cited from the inquiry. That extract, alone and out of context of the replies of the applicants in the acts of the inquiry about the VGH hospital deal, cannot be used to prejudice their case, ruled the judges.

The court revoked the August 2019 decree which had ordered the ministers to testify and instead ordered them to present only that part of their reply from June 2019 in the acts of the Vitals inquiry where the extracts from the Egrant inquiry are cited.