Pakistani businessman Shaukat Ali Chaudhry, the man believed to be the secret majority owner of Vitals Global Healthcare, is claiming a breach of human rights because Maltese law does not allow the contestation of a permanent freezing order of assets.
Ali, 73, and his 52-year-old Pakistani wife Shaukat Aasia Parveen are facing charges of corruption and money laundering linked to the hospitals' privatisation deal that was annulled by a court last year.
Both are pleading not guilty in the case presided by Magistrate Rachel Montebello who has ruled that there is enough prima facie evidence for them to stand trial.
Chaudhry’s son, Asad Ali, also stands accused of crimes in relation to the now-annulled hospitals' deal. He is being charged separately.
Prosecutors allege the family profited illegally from the deal, using Ali-controlled companies Mount Everest FZ LLC and Global Assets Holdings to do so.
Ali appeared as a representative of those two companies and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges on their behalf.
During the couple’s arraignment earlier this month, the prosecution had asked the court to order a freeze of Ali's assets of up to €30 million and Aasia Parveen's assets of up to €20 million.
Ali's lawyers objected to the freezing order requests, arguing that a constitutional reference regarding such freezing orders should first be decided before any such orders were accepted. The reference challenged the current legal regime allowing a defendant seven working days to challenge a freezing order, contrary to the unlimited term available to the prosecution.
Following deliberation, the magistrate imposed an asset freeze on both Shaukat Ali and his wife. She specified that the freezing order was a temporary one.
The Attorney General then contested the order and asked for it to be turned from a temporary one to a permanent one.
'Law does not offer effective remedy to freezing order'
The couple then called on Madame Justice Edwina Grima to declare that this would be in breach of their human rights to a fair hearing, especially the principle of equality of arms, together with their right to enjoy their property.
Maltese law, they argued, does not offer an effective remedy to a permanent freezing order, since the person charged did not have the opportunity to contest it. They called on the court to grant an effective remedy to this.
The judge will give a ruling on the matter on Wednesday when she will decide whether or not to refer the matter to a constitutional court.
AG lawyers Francesco Refalo, Rebekah Spiteri and Shelby Aquilina together with Superintendent Hubert Cini and Inspector Wayne R Borg prosecuted.
Lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi and Jessica Formosa were defence counsel.