A magistrate has declared there is enough evidence for the case to move forward against the son of a key figure in the fraudulent deal to privatise three hospitals.

Magistrate Leonard Caruana also turned down a request by Asad Shaukat Ali to reverse an order prohibiting him from publicly commenting on the case. 

Ali is the son of Shaukat Ali Chaudhry, who is believed to have been secretly running Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH), which in 2017 won the 30-year, €4 billion contract to operate Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo General hospitals.

The decree was delivered in open court on Tuesday morning when criminal proceedings against Asad Shaukat Ali resumed.

It means that there is enough evidence prima facie - at first glance - for the charges against him to stick and for the accused to face trial on indictment. 

A similar ruling was made last week in the case of former prime minister Joseph Muscat, his former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi along with a host of other companies.

The hospitals deal was signed during Muscat's tenure. 

A former consultant to Vitals and Steward, who took over the hospitals deal, he is pleading not guilty over his role in the fraudulent hospitals concession, since annulled by the courts.

Asad Ali, 43, who was born in Tripoli, Libya but with an address in Swieqi, has pleaded "absolutely not guilty" to all charges personally and on behalf of his companies, Eurasia Ltd and Incorp Sarl.

His lawyer Shazoo Ghaznavi had previously asked the court to reconsider a decree preventing his client to speak out about the case "in light of heavy coverage and speculative statements in the press".