Muscat on Facebook: Efimova treated with kid gloves, calls for investigation into leak

The former Labour prime minister Joseph Muscat kept his promise to make his voice heard, a week since his home and office were raided by police inspectors in connection with a magisterial inquiry on the Vitals Global Healthcare concession.

Muscat gave his Facebook audience a hit-list of his gripes on the police search in the Vitals-Accutor case, making sure to keep followers loyal to him questioning the magisterial inquiry that touched on a €60,000 payment by a Swiss firm connected to Steward Healthcare, the successor in the VGH concession.

Muscat complained once again that the police search had touched upon his teenage children’s possessions; that the search had been witnessed from afar by Robert Aquilina, the president of the NGO Repubblika, which filed the complaint to the magistrate for an investigation into the VGH concession; that the search order had been leaked to the press as well as Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, the lawyer for Repubblika; and that the leak should itself be investigated.

Muscat also called out the institutions for having treated the Egrant whistleblower Maria Efimova with “kid gloves” when she was referred to perjury charges on her claims that his wife owned a secret Panamanian offshore company. Court proceedings relating to the European arrest warrant for Efimova have been adjourned sine die by the magistrate hearing the case.

“I feel that I have to speak as if I don’t speak about certain issues, no one else will. It is also in the interest of many for me to remain silent,” Muscat said.

Muscat claimed the police search of his children’s school bags was out of order. “Someone wanted this whole theatre to occur.”

He said the presence of Aquilina outside his home, and Azzopardi’s prior knowledge, undermines trust in the institutions. “All this undermines trust in these processes and in the institutions. The fact that people knew what would happen, puts doubts in the mind of thousands. I agree with the Prime Minister that the institutions should not only benefit from further responsibilities but also use it wisely... The least thing they could do to do is to investigate how these people had such information. This merits an investigation and an inquiry.”

Muscat denied that he expected to be treated differently but said he did not want to be treated “unjustly for being Joseph Muscat”, as part of  a politically vindictive effort against him.

“We also have to consider the fact that others were treated with kid gloves,” Muscat said, referring to Maria Efimova, the whistleblower in the Egrant case, whom he said was expected to be arraigned for perjury yet she was never extradited to Malta.

“This undermines trust in the institutions. I always defended them but it is not acceptable to have two weights and two measures,” Muscat said.

Muscat’s home was searched by police, as part of a corruption probe into the Vitals Global Healthcare hospitals. Muscat had received a €60,000 payment made by Accutor, a Swiss company who had received millions from Steward Healthcare when it took over the VGH hospitals deal. Son of slain journalist Matthew Caruana Galizia also claimed the contract was worth €540,000.

Muscat defended the payment he received form the Swiss company and said he received money for work that he did. “I did work for them. Don’t I have a right to work? I did this work, declared my income and paid taxes for it,” he said.

“I will keep on talking, explaining and work quietly, without protagonism... but I will not let anyone stir the agenda to break the movement. The movement we constructed together, will remain strong and I will make sure that it goes forward,” Muscat concluded.