A company facing criminal charges in connection with the Vitals hospital scandal has had a €20 million freezing order lifted.

Prosecutors had asked the court to convert a temporary freezing order against legal firm DF Advocates into a fixed one.

But instead of doing so, Judge Edwina Grima concluded that there was no sound legal basis for the firm to be subject to any freezing order at all.

It is the first such decision involving individuals or companies facing charges in relation to the Vitals scandal, which rocked Malta's political establishment. 

DF Advocates is one of a number of firms cited by prosecutors in the second of two cases presented by prosecutors. Its lawyers have argued that charges against it should be dropped altogether, because a legal firm is not a body corporate and therefore cannot be found guilty of crimes. 

Lawyers made similar arguments when they filed representations to the court against prosecutors' push to have DF Advocates subject to a fixed freezing order.

The court said it would not enter into the merits of that issue, but concluded that the freezing order was unjustified. 

It found that DF Advocates could never be found guilty of any crimes as prosecutors had charged its directors Jean Carl Farrugia and financial controller Kenneth Deguara, not the legal firm itself.

As a result, the legal firm could not be subject to a freezing order, it concluded, because if prosecutors obtain a conviction it will be its directors (Farrugia and Deguara) who will have the relevant assets confiscated.

The court however confirmed a €13.5 million freezing order against Kenneth Deguara as well as a €40 million freezing order against Deborah Anne Chappell, a lawyer who worked for the firm at the time of the Vitals contracts and who also faces criminal charges in the case.

DF Advocates was represented by lawyers Franco Debono, Ezekiel Psaila and Jonathan Thompson.