Parties trade barbs over lack of police interest in Vitals suspects and AG charges

The PN’s shadow minister for health has called out the lack of procedure employed by the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General, in the wake of the Vitals magisterial inquiry recommending charges against former Labour top brass and current ministers.

Adrian Delia said on TVM’s Xtra that in the wake of the charges recommended by a magistrate to the AG, the interrogations and taking of statements from any suspects should have taken started taking place, before arraignments.

“I have been asking, calling, soliciting, and pressing the police commissioner for years to commence his interrogation, his investigations,” Adrian Delia said.

Magistrates in Malta assume executive powers when carrying out inquiries, often selecting to include, or not, police investigators in their inquiry.

The Vitals inquiry has embroiled former prime minister Joseph Muscat, who faces charges of money laundering in the Vitals hospitals concession, even though Muscat was not identified in the original criminal complaint filed to the magistrate by the NGO Repubblika. Since then, Muscat has complained that his rights were breached by not being called in for questioning.

Delia said that as former PN leader, having successfully obtained the rescission of the Vitals hospitals concession in a civil court, he had often entreated the police to start taking statements from potential suspects over alleged fraud. “He always replied, ‘no, I do not need to,” Delia said.

It is unclear as to whether the police have been kept apart from Magistrate Gabriella Vella’s inquiry, or are holding out on taking statements and instead allowing the AG to prosecute in court only on evidence presented by the magistrate.

Delia said that the police could have freely investigated the allegations even throughout the magisterial inquiry, without interrupting. “It’s better to ask the justice or home affairs ministers as to why the Commissioner of Police chose not to,” he said.

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, also a guest on Xtra, immediately replied by asking why the magistrate herself did not call for them either. Delia instantly reacted by saying: “Leave the magistrate alone,” a call he repeated several times, and accusing Prime Minister Robert Abela of attacking the judiciary.

Attard insisted that neither the AG nor the police commissioner were obliged to call in suspects for interrogation, saying he had hoped it would be the magistrate to call in people for questioning. “The police commissioner has already explained this, saying he followed the [inquiry’s] conclusions. There was no need,” Attard added.

The Attorney General is also legally empowered to spike any accusations that might not be evidence-backed, employing the nolle prosequi power. Such decisions can now also be appealed in court by those challenge the AG’s power not to proceed on certain charges.

But Attard countered that the AG would then have been criticised for not issuing charges against anyone identified by the magistrate. “They say she is compromised, only for doing her job and following the conclusions of the inquiry. Can you imagine had she proceeded with a nolle prosequi?”