VALLETTA: Former Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, the current deputy premier and the central bank chief are among dozens of people and companies charged in a hospital privatization scandal rocking the Mediterranean island country.
Muscat and one of his ex-ministers, Konrad Mizzi, have been charged with accepting bribes, money laundering, and corruption in public office, according to documents obtained by AFP late on Tuesday.
It is the first time a former prime minister will face criminal charges in court. Muscat strongly denies the charges.
Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne — previously tipped to be Malta’s next European Commissioner — and ex-finance minister Edward Scicluna, governor of the Central Bank of Malta, were also charged with misappropriation, fraud, and fraudulent gain.
Muscat’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri has been accused of money laundering, soliciting bribes and abuse of office to exact an unlawful advantage through threats or abuse of authority.
The charges were filed on Monday after a long-running probe that has shaken Malta’s political establishment. It dates back to the decision by Muscat’s Labour government in 2015 to pass the management of three public hospitals to a private company, Vitals Global Healthcare.
The company had no healthcare experience and after twenty-one months it sold the concession to another company, Steward Health Care, without having made any of the investments it had promised.
Following a challenge by the opposition Nationalist party, a court in 2023 annulled the privatization deal, finding evidence of fraudulent behaviour.
Malta’s Appeal Court Upheld Ruling
An appeal court upheld the decision and also found there had been “collusion” between senior government officials and companies.
Following a request by the civil society group Republika, a separate criminal probe was launched in 2019 which recommended in April that charges be brought.
Those charged are likely to be summoned to court in the coming days, beginning what is expected to be a long legal case.
Those accused of money laundering risk jail sentences of up to eighteen years.
Muscat — who resigned in 2019 in the political fallout over the killing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia — has strongly protested his innocence.
