Defence lawyers representing a group of lawyers and members of the adjudication committee in the Vitals hospitals case on Tuesday insisted that a magisterial inquiry should be struck off the case because it was vitiated since the rights of the suspects had not been observed.

The accused are lawyers  Deborah Anne Chappell, Kevin Deguara, Kenneth Deguara and  Jean Carl Farrugia, and adjudication board member Robert Borg.  

Defence lawyer Franco Debono pleaded that the inquiry had to be removed in totality from the acts of the case. He explained that when inquests (inquiries) were opened at the request of private individuals, the suspects, in terms of the law, had certain rights which the accused had been denied. 

Before an inquest was opened, the suspected person had a right to be informed. He had a right to file a reply, and when the magistrate decided to go ahead with the inquest, the suspect even had a right of appeal from such a decision. 

In this case, while the original suspects (Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi)  had been afforded such rights, the same could not be said for these accused. 

Any person who at some stage of the inquest became a suspect also needed to be informed and given the rights of the original suspects but this had not happened, causing serious prejudice to the accused.  

For these reasons the accused had suffered a serious breach of rights, the inquest was vitiated and it should therefore be removed from the records of the case.

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi Stefano Filletti, Jonathan Thomson and Ezekiel Psaila endorsed the request.

Prosecutors Francesco Refalo and Rebekah Spiteri from the Attorney General's office objected on the grounds that the request was premature and could be raised at a later stage.  

The magistrate requested the formal filing of an application, to which the prosecution will reply.  

Earlier on Tuesday's proceedings, the prosecutors informed the court that they were requesting that court expert Jeremy Harbinson testify about his findings to the inquiry by means of letter of request.

Dr Debono asked the prosecution to justify its request since this was an extraordinary way to summon witnesses, who were normally heard in person.

The defence lawyers noted that according to media reports,  Harbinson was refusing to come to Malta to testify in person. There was nothing about this in the records of the case, and therefore prosecutors had to substantiate their request. 

The case was later adjourned.