LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (MNA/ITALPRESS) – Former Ministers Chris Fearne and Edward Scicluna have been placed under a bill of indictment in connection with the concession of the three state hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare and, eventually, Steward Health Care. Magistrate Leonard Caruana stated that the Prosecution had presented sufficient evidence for former Deputy PM and former Health Minister Chris Fearne and former Finance Minister, today occupying the role of Governor of the Central Bank of Malta Edward Scicluna, together with thirteen other defendants, to stand trial. They were arraigned in Court on a series of charges, on the recommendation of a magisterial inquiry. They are being accused of fraud exceeding five thousand euros and making fraudulent gains. Chris Fearne, Edward Scicluna, former Permanent Secretaries Alfred Camilleri and Joseph Rapa, and Permanent Secretary Ronald Mizzi who resigned yesterday, are also being charged with misappropriation of funds. Apart from this, Camilleri, Rapa, and Mizzi are charged with committing a crime that they were duty-bound to prevent. Other charges against the accused are about participation in a criminal organization and fraud. Chris Fearne had resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and asked for his nomination for European Commissioner to be withdrawn. The failure of Chris Fearne and Edward Scicluna to object to cabinet decisions on a controversial hospitals deal was one of the key reasons the court ruled they should face trial. The criminal case should also continue against 13 other lawyers, civil servants, officials, and a company linked to the deal, which could probably only have happened with the support of a “web” of individuals, the court said. Chris Fearne has confirmed that he will not be seeking another term as Labour deputy leader after the court determined that there was enough evidence for him to stand trial in connection with the fraudulent hospitals concession. In a statement published on Facebook, Fearne asserted his innocence and said that he was certain that the court would ultimately confirm the truth. On his part, his co-defendant – Central Bank of Malta governor Edward Scicluna appears to be staying put in his post. He had said that only the European Central Bank could force him to resign. Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela indicated that Edward Scicluna should resign from his position as Central Bank of Malta Governor. In an interview with Times of Malta, Abela stated that “the role of central bank governor is a sensitive one” while acknowledging Sciclunàs integrity and “how he always prioritized the national interest”. Scicluna was the finance minister when the government controversially negotiated the Vitals hospitals privatization deal in 2015. In January 2021, he was appointed governor of the Central Bank. The Leader of the Opposition Bernard Grech said that the government was approaching its end, and many people were rallying around the Nationalist Party, seeing it as the only means to get the country out of its current limbo. Speaking on the party’s radio station, Grech said the country was rudderless, with the prime minister consistently absent or failing to take decisions that put Malta first. The people, Grech said, were fed up and getting increasingly angry and frustrated at how the country was being harmed because of the interests of the few. The PN, Grech said, had a duty to rally the people and work with the social partners to ensure that no further harm was caused to the country. It needed to prepare itself for the change the people were seeking so that a fresh direction could be set for a better future for the country and a better quality of life for its people.
– Photo Doi (Dipartimento per l’informazione) –
(ITALPRESS).
