Josie Muscat expected to face charges over Erin Tanti insemination case

Prominent doctor Josie Muscat is set to be charged in court for his role in allegedly helping convicted killer Erin Tanti artificially inseminate his partner. 

Muscat, a former MP and founder of Saint James Hospital, is expected to face charges for allegedly conducting the artificial insemination procedure for Tanti and his partner to have a baby, sources close to the investigation said.

Tanti is serving a 20-year prison sentence for the murder of teenager Lisa Maria Zahra.

He and his partner were also arrested in May over suspicion that the medical procedure they underwent to have a baby violated the embryo protection law. The woman is due to give birth in a few weeks.

Muscat would not comment when asked whether he knowingly handled Tanti’s sperm for the artificial insemination procedure. He only said the Hippocratic oath prevented him from confirming or denying that sensitive information.

“I hope you know and understand that as a doctor I am bound by professional secrecy, whoever the patient might be, and for whatever reason a patient comes to ask for my help. This is my Hippocratic oath,” he said in reply to Times of Malta questions.

Muscat is an IVF specialist and chairperson of Saint James Hospital, Malta’s largest private hospital.  

Investigators believe a prison doctor (not Muscat) helped Tanti get his semen out of the facility and have it transported to the clinic where Muscat performed the procedure on Tanti’s partner.

Prison sources said the doctor has been suspended. It is unclear if the doctor will also face charges or internal disciplinary proceedings. 

Article 9 of the act which regulates germ cell (sperm/egg) donation says “whoever uses, transfers or fertilises any germ line cells in contravention of this article shall be guilty of an offence and, on conviction, shall be liable to the punishment of a fine of not less than €10,000 and not exceeding €23,000 or to imprisonment not exceeding five years or to both such fine and imprisonment”.

Last week, Tanti and his partner filed a judicial protest claiming he was being denied his right to a private family life.  

Tanti argued he and his partner were first allowed to perform the procedure to have a baby and assured their rights to parenthood were being upheld, only to then be arrested over a suspected breach of the embryo protection law. 

Moreover, he argued, the police breached their rights when they interrogated him and his eight-month-pregnant partner late at night at police headquarters. 

The authorities acted against the best interest of the baby and the mother, he said. 

Tanti and his partner entered into a relationship before the former teacher was convicted, while out on bail.  He began serving a 20-year prison sentence in 2019 after pleading guilty that he murdered 15-year-old Lisa Maria Zahra at Dingli Cliffs in 2014.  

Tanti, who suffered injuries, admitted to charges of assisting his teenage student in committing suicide and having defiled the underage girl at the time when he was her teacher.