Joseph Muscat and his fellow court jesters

It’s never a good time for Joseph Muscat when Robert Aquilina stands up in court.

“‘You’re lying,’ retorted Aquilina. Since Muscat and his followers like to scream ‘Where’s the proof?’ Aquilina asked the court whether he could read off the transcript of the previous sitting, which he did, and Muscat’s lawyer was confronted with his barefaced lie.”

This week Robert Aquilina, the president of NGO Repubblika continued his testimony before madam justice Doreen Clarke in the case filed by the disgraced former Prime Minister against the State Advocate in which he is calling on the Constitutional court to remove the inquiring magistrate who is investigating him and his former cabinet ministers.

Right off the bat, Muscat’s lawyer lied in open court. But Aquilina was lying in wait, since he had a hunch that Charlon Gouder would apply rugby rules to a game of football. Gouder lobbed the ball while Aquilina parried it masterfully. Gouder’s first question to Aquilina was pure entrapment: ‘Last time you undertook to exhibit copies of two documents’ (one of them being Repubblika’s 2019 application to request the commencement of the inquiry into the Vitals Global Healthcare hospitals deal).

‘You’re lying,’ retorted Aquilina. Since Muscat and his followers like to scream ‘Where’s the proof?’ Aquilina asked the court whether he could read off the transcript of the previous sitting, which he did, and Muscat’s lawyer was confronted with his barefaced lie. What actually happened in the previous session was that Aquilina had said that he needed to ask the organization’s committee if we agreed to their request. This week Aquilina came back with an answer. Repubblika’s committee said: ‘As if, ma tarax!’ And Muscat’s lawyers went into meltdown. What did they expect, really and truly?

That we hobnob with the likes of them?

True to form, Muscat took to Facebook, and whined that we “do not want to present in court the document that started the inquiry,” which is of course another complete lie. Manuel Delia said it best, in an excoriating and cathartic piece on his blog: ‘We have presented in court the document that started the inquiry. That’s how the inquiry started, you nincompoop. I was there. I signed on the dotted line, swearing to the veracity of the evidence we presented. It was in the court building. If we hadn’t done that there’d have been no inquiry. The police certainly didn’t ask for one. We did’ (A duck you very much to Joseph Muscat, 22 November 2023 – If you haven’t read it yet, please do).

Much as Muscat likes to let us poor mortals know that it’s business as usual in spite of the Democles sword that is hanging over his head, the invictus grin, or rather the rictus grin he sports in court, he is hardly the picture of serenity. His eyes dart here and there like a cornered rat, he twitches in his seat when Aquilina looks him in the eye, and confronts him with facts. Which is understandable since what Muscat is most afraid of are facts especially uttered by a righteous and fearless man.

Much as Mrs Muscat makes her husband pose for all sorts of selfies for her Instagram, and flaunt their gains while the country drowns in corruption, and to let us all know that #Iwillsurvive during a Madonna concert, when the superstar sings from Evita (irony, like facts are not Mrs Muscat’s strong suit), they know that time is running out. How else would you explain Muscat’s frenzied attack on the inquiring magistrate and the shenanigans of his fellow court jesters?

All this reeks of desperation. Just before Aquilina left the courtroom to allow the judge to hear submissions from the parties and then issue a decree, Gouder, ever the bright spark, whose line of questioning failed at the first foul, told Aquilina: ‘I have more questions for you, you know.’ To which Aquilina fired back: ‘And I will answer them all but I cannot guarantee that you will like my answers.’

Of course, they won’t. Much as they didn’t like it when eventually the judge ruled in Repubblika’s favour. So we will look forward to more somersaults in court than a gymnastic competition. And to more rants on Facebook from a disgraced former prime minister. And to more slots on Manuel Cuschieri’s programme. What’s not to like?