Repubblika wants Vitals inquiry conclusions to be published and implemented
NGO Repubblika wants the conclusions of the Vitals Magisterial Inquiry to be published and implemented, its Honourary President Robert Aquilina said while addressing the press outside the law courts.
He spoke after it was revealed in court that the Vitals inquiry had concluded and was sent to the Attorney General.
Repubblika has two requests. The first is that, when considering the seriousness of the situation and who the people are, “it is in the public interest for all the conclusions of the inquiry to be published,” Aquilina said. He made it clear that they are not requesting the whole procès-verbal to be published, but just the conclusions.
“We don’t know what is in the inquiry, but we want to know, and want the Maltese and Gozitan people to know, what is in it, as if it found that crimes were committed then everyone is a victim of those crimes. If it was found that a crime was committed, it would be far more disgusting as it would have happened in the health sector, and we would be talking about money that was meant to go for the care of children, the care of sick people, but instead would have gone to the pockets of corrupt people. The victims, the people, have a right to know what was found and what wasn’t.”
He also said that, without knowing what they are at this stage, all the conclusions must be implemented completely without any dragging of feet. “We will not accept the AG and the Police Commissioner acting like they did in the Pilatus case.”
He urged that action be taken like that which was taken against two judges in 2002, who he said were taken to court without the dragging of feet.
“We want the state to clean up from abuse. We want all the truth to come out, so that everyone will see it, no matter what it is. We want justice to start occurring and so we want the inquiry conclusions to be published and implemented.”
He said that former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was trying to stop the inquiring magistrate from investigating him and his accomplices criminally.
He said that the conclusion of the magisterial inquiry, and it being sent to the Attorney General, is a “very important step for the country to start healing to clean up, and for justice to start in the country.”
He said that it was in May 2019 that Repubblika had asked for the magisterial inquiry into the hospitals deal. In that application, he said, they pointed out “how former Ministers Konrad Mizzi, Chris Cardona and Edward Scicluna had given an unjust and illegal advantage to the owners of a private company for it to be chosen, as happened, to enter a contract with a value of more than €2 billion for the running of three of the people’s hospitals. That company was chosen despite having absolutely no experience in the medical field.”
Aquilina said that the people indicated in the application did all they could to try and hinder the course of justice, “and they found, from the first day, the support of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.”
In November 2021, The Times of Malta revealed that Joseph Muscat received payments from a company in Switzerland, which “had received millions of euros from the hospitals deal,” Aquilina said, adding that this raised serious suspicions, and that Repubblika then filed a report. “In January 2021, the police, on the order of the inquiring magistrate, searched Joseph Muscat’s home. From that moment forward, Muscat filed a case and called me to testify, and when he saw that he was not managing to stop the inquiring magistrate from continuing to investigate him and his accomplices when he saw that he kept losing one battle after another in that case, gave it up, and started another, the second sitting of which was heard today before another judge.”
He said that “today we got to learn that the spokes in the wheels of justice failed, and the magisterial inquiry was concluded and passed on to the Attorney General.”
He said that the people indicated in Repubblika’s court application were people who were in the highest leadership of the country.