Joseph Muscat and his former senior lieutenants were charged with serious crimes over the hospitals scandal on Tuesday in an unprecedented case for Malta.

The former prime minister, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, and 20 other individuals and companies are facing accusations of bribery, trading in influence, money laundering, and various other crimes.

Unless you've been living in a bubble, you will be aware that the lead-up to today's first court hearing has been rife with accusations, denials, and political salvos. 

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Almost 12 hours later...

And after dozens of coffees for the Times of Malta team at our Mrieħel offices and outside the law courts in Valletta - we're done. We plan to be back with you tomorrow to give you the live proceedings of the second group of accused. 

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Video: Matthew Mirabelli

No comment from the protagonists

Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi emerge from court insisting they have now been instructed by the court not to give any comments.

Accompanied by cheers, Muscat said he would have liked to hold a press conference but he had to abide by the court's gagging order. 

 

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Defence register objection to experts, court imposes restrictions

8.25pm The magistrate is back. 

The court prohibits the parties and their lawyer from handing any parts of these records to third parties. Only the faithful reporting of court proceedings are to be allowed.

"The case is tried in court and court alone, not through the media. So the parties and their lawyers are banned from handing any of the data to third parties or making any public comments about any testimonies or evidence in the proceedings."

As for travel restrictions, the court will not prohibit the accused from travelling abroad but they must make sure to appear for every sitting so as not to stultify the proceedings.

The court also reserved the right to set out further conditions at the next sitting or in the interim.

To make sure they abide by this obligation the court imposed a personal guarantee of €25,000 on each of the accused.

All defence lawyers register their objection to all experts nominated in the magisterial inquiry. They will put forward their reasoning at a later stage. There’s a show of hands. All defence lawyers register this objection.

The case is adjourned to June 13 and June 19. 

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The last hurdle

7.40pm The magistrate has suspended the hearing for the last time. She’ll be back within 15/20 minutes with her decree on the last requests by the prosecution, including whether there should be a ban on public comments. 

Stay with us.

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Grech lashes out at police boss

7.18pm Speaking at a PN rally this evening, Bernard Grech said it was confirmed during today’s court sitting that the police did not actively investigate the hospitals case. This, he said, was shameful.

He said he was warning Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa’ that he should not continue to serve those who had put him in his post and "controlling him". 

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What's going on?

7.15pm In a nutshell, at the moment, most of the defence lawyers are lining up one by one, urging the magistrate to turn down a request by the AG's office to impose conditions on the accused, including restrictions on travel, and banning them from commenting publicly.

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'Waving pictures in public'

7.03pm Lawyer Edward Gatt said never in his years of practice was there any such ban on public comments as that requested by the AG's office.

"What effect would this have on any future trial by jury? So others can comment and say all sort of things about Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, waving their pictures in public but we get an order imposed by the court? Potential jurors would hear only one side of the story."

Franco Debono says he is astonished that the AG had nothing to say about Repubblika’s request to be admitted as an injured party. 

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'We're getting info from the media'

7pm Lawyer Veronique Dalli says her client Taomac was not even served notice of charges and got to know they were implicated when WhatsApp chats were being circulated in April. They approached the police voluntarily and cooperated all along.

The company’s legal representative is a Maltese national with a family here. The person accused was the last one to get to know.

"As for the requested ban, it’s unfair. We’re getting information from the media and it’s not fair that if there’s some untrue allegation we cannot request a right of reply because of such ban. This would impinge upon the right to freedom of expression," Dalli said.

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Was Muscat going abroad?

6.52pm Galea quotes a Facebook post from lawyer Jason Azzopardi referring to Muscat allegedly going to Turkey this evening.

"Is he really going abroad today," the magistrate asks.

The lawyer replies: "It's 6.45pm now. No, he's not going abroad today."

Magistrate: "Is he going away when the case is ongoing?"

Giannella de Marco also objects to the AG’s request for court conditions to be imposed. All those charged came to court today and there was no tampering with evidence.

David Meli and Mario Gatt made no social media posts, let alone try to abscond nor interfere in the course of justice. There was no allegation in their regard and so the AG’s request for conditions is unjust.

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No right to 'muzzle' client

6.45pm Lawyer Galea hits back. He says the right to freedom of expression is foremost and the AG appears to want to limit that.

"Sweeping statements before the court are not on. Refalo simply threw these statements without bringing evidence. Dr Muscat is here today like all other accused."

In what appears to be a veiled reference towards Repubblika lawyer Jason Azzopardi, Galea says “My client is muzzled but a certain party who is not present today can say what he likes on social media.”

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'This is not a TV series'

6.40pm Refalo from the AG's office comes with another request - and a strong statement seven hours into the sitting.

He says they want to make sure that this case continues, so he was requesting that whenever one of the accused wants to go abroad they are to seek court authorisation.

He says the prosecution is basically asking the court to impose some bail conditions even though the accused were not charged under arrest.

“And we’re asking this especially after seeing certain public comments and statements and spin after these charges were filed. We want to avoid that this case is reduced to a trial by media. We want to protect the proper administration of justice, and so, while this case is ongoing we want the accused to refrain from further public comments.

"Those comments are more appropriate to some TV series... And they may undermine the proper administration of justice."

He is asked to specify who was attacking the prosecution.

Refalo points to comments by Muscat, Mizzi and Spiteri on social media as well as statements made during press conferences.

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Lawyers to challenge expert

6.20pm Lawyer Edward Gatt asks about that “Sam”, a superintendent in the UK.

"Did you ever meet Sam at the AG’s office before this inquiry?"

The magistrate asks what is the relevance.

"If it’s for your personal satisfaction it’s not necessarily relevant," says the magistrate.

"I want to know if Scerri knows he had done work at AG’s office because I intend to challenge this expert who was involved in the Vitals inquiry and gave his opinion."

Scerri says he was aware this expert had been involved in other inquiries.

"Were experts given a magisterial warrant?"

"They were appointed by the magistrate. There was a list," Scerri says.

But did the experts have a search warrant, asks Tonna Lowell.

"No, the police had," replies Scerri.

Chris Cilia asks if minutes were recorded about the search. Scerri says they were not, but after each search, all those involved would go straight to the inquiring magistrate to testify.

Muscat's lawyer pushes on:

"You went to a former PM’s home. I don’t think you ever did anything like that before. So do you recall if the foreign experts also searched the place?"

Scerri: "Experts were with us. But I cannot exclude with certainty that they didn’t search too."

Scerri says he was not involved in the search at Muscat’s Sa Maison office.

He leaves the stage. He is the last witness for today.

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The search at Muscat's home

6.15pm Scerri is asked about the search at Muscat’s home in 2021 by lawyer Galea.

"Did you tell your subordinates beforehand?"

"Normally those would only be told a day ahead. We postponed Muscat’s search to the next day."

"Why?"

"Because there was some leak in the media and so we decided to postpone by one day. We practically swapped the dates."

"Did you investigate that leak? Didn’t the magistrate ask about that? I personally was not involved but Supt James Grech and Alexandra Mamo were informed."

"What did the magistrate tell you when the leak was in the media? Nothing? Didn’t she say anything?

The AG lawyer intervenes: "What’s the relevance of these questions?

"It’s for the validity of the inquiry when we come to it," Galea says.

Scerri says the magistrate did not say anything. Police searched for a particular document that was handed over by Muscat himself.

"It was given to the experts who were present. Police simply took the document, sealed it and gave it to the experts."

"What was that document?"

"As far as I know it was a contract of work."

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PN condemns intimidation towards journalists

6.08pm Meanwhile, away from the courtroom, the Nationalist Party expressed solidarity with journalists who were intimidated outside the law courts on Tuesday morning.

In a statement, the party said journalism was an important pillar of democracy and journalists should be allowed to go about their duties. Furthermore, it was thanks to the work of journalists that the country got to know about corruption in the hospitals deal which saw Vitals and Steward pocket €400m of the people’s money.

Meanwhile, PN candidate Peter Agius said the EU Commission's rule of law report had recommended to the government the need to ensure a safe environment for journalists to do their work.

"Today’s insults at journalists and towards Daphne Caruana Galizia by Muscat’s supporters in Valletta confirms that this recommendation has also been ignored," Agius said, pledging that the recommendations are implemented and not remain on paper.

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Newspaper reports followed up

6.02pm Scerri says that every letter and document was kept by the magistrate.

"That was the procedure followed before I joined the investigation and that’s how it remained."

Police also presented newspaper reports to the magistrate - one in particular was a report about two foreigners.

The magistrate ordered them to be questioned if they were brought to Malta.

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Questions on experts

5.55pm Lawyer Edward Gatt asks if police were present during meetings between the magistrate and experts.

"No," Scerri says, but cites Sam l-Irlandiz who would bring along around seven foreign colleagues.

The experts went to FCID to detail the police about keywords and tips to look out for during the searches which were carried out in coordinated manner.

Scerri says this was the first time he worked with these experts.

Lawyer Vince Galea chips in: "What keywords?"

"The keywords normally consisted of three letters or so. But I don’t recall exactly. For example, KYC or words. Experts would tell us to show them any resulting matches."

He is asked if 'JM' was ever flagged.

"No," Scerri replies. 

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Inspections at Nexia BT, Muscat's home

5.45pm Former inspector Anthony Scerri takes the witness stand next. He recalls that in April 2021, he was to assist the magistrate in the inquiry which started in 2019.

"I assisted Stivala in the search at Nexia BT's archives in a Qrendi garage."

Experts were instructed by inquiring magistrate to search and seize. After each search, the police would go immediately to court and testify in the inquiry.

In 2022 he was asked to search Sladden’s family home in Xagħjra. All those involved in the search would testify before the inquiring magistrate. 

Vitals auditor Chris Spiteri was asked to testify and the magistrate ordered a search at his home and offices. More documents and devices were seized.

Scerri says that in November a newspaper mentioned two foreigners who could have useful information to the Vitals inquiry.

A request was made to Interpol but as far as Scerri knew, these two did not come. The Ta' Xbiex office of Vitals accountant, ID Malta offices and Joseph Muscat's home was also searched.

Lawyer Jason Grima cross-examines Scerri, asking about the searches he had carried out on Spiteri.

“Did you know that Spiteri had already testified four times before the magistrate before the searches?” he asks.

Scerri confirms that Spiteri had cooperated. 

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Supporters still linger outside

5.30pm The court session started at 11.30am. The crowds gathered two hours before that - and a few dozen are still waiting outside the court room to applaud Muscat at the end of today's session. 

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No parallel investigation

5.25pm Stivala is asked about searches at the homes of David Meli and Mario Gatt. He recalls a black box file taken from Meli.

"Did you see what was seized as far as Meli was concerned?"

"No," he says, adding that he was not personally present but his officials would have called to inform him about what was being seized.

He instructed them to look for evidence linked to the hospitals concession.

"What did you seize from Gatt?"

"I wasn’t the one to seize the items."

Stivala could not recall if police gave seizure notes to Gatt.

Stivala says there was a police file about the Vitals concession. But police made no parallel investigation because there was a magisterial inquiry that had started.

"Until April 2021, until my time there, I believe no one was indicated as suspect."

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Devices seized

5.20pm Superintendent Rennie Stivala from the economic crimes unit at Asset Recovery Bureau is up next. He says court experts were appointed and devices were seized during police raids in 2020.

Police had asked Technoline to hand over copy of all receipts issued to VGH. Stivala had questioned Ivan Vassallo not under interrogation but to get an idea of the extent of Technoline’s operations.

Vassallo was willing to hand over his diaries.

"Did you ask Vassallo to testify before Magistrate Gabriella Vella?" his lawyer Arthur Azzopardi asks.

"No. All that I gathered I exhibited in the inquiry."

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Under-declaration of tax

5.05pm Tax commissioner Joseph Caruana takes the stand. His office made a request to investigate Christopher Spiteri over under-declarations of tax, filing a written request to the police.

Tax commissioner granted dispensation to the police to investigate and take action against Spiteri. But the tax authorities themselves did not investigate Spiteri.

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Freezing order imposed

5pm Edward Gatt, lawyer for Schembri and Mizzi reads from page 82 of the proces verbal: “Funds going to key players. The sums involved are debatable but….”

In the case of Schembri and Mizzi, the table included in that page says it is “not applicable."

But the magistrate has already decided. The court cannot decide on admissibility or otherwise of evidence re-issuing of freezing order. The court does not have competence to decide on the guilt or otherwise of the accused. 

After hearing the prosecution state under oath that there is valid reason for property to be confiscated, the court upheld the request.

The bottom line is that all those amounts listed in the charges are now hit by the freezing order.

This means the accused are prohibited from transferring their property within those indicated amounts. The court order will be published in the government gazette and asset recovery bureau will prepare a compendium of assets of each accused.

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Request rejected

4.50pm The magistrate rejects the request for the prosecution to identify between amounts when the accused is charged in a personal and vicarious capacity.

When deciding upon the request for the freezing order, the court must make no distinction between property subject to seizure that ends up in accused’s possession, be it personally or vicariously

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Personal and corporate liability

4.40pm Lawyer Giannella de Marco says the court should distinguish between personal and corporate liability. Other lawyers agree with the argument. 

Refalo from the AG's office says that the prosecution was not bound to distinguish between persons and companies. But de Marco insists that a line should be drawn between personal and vicarious liability.

Lawyer Charles Mercieca says that Meli was charged with making illicit gains in relation to Steward.

"Does the court have the tools to distinguish between the personal gains and those by the company? That distinction was not even made by the inquiring magistrate," he says.

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Magistrate stands her ground

4.30pm Lawyer Franco Debono, representing Sciacca Grill, says that justice must not only be done, but must seen to be done. The prosecution is to indicate the pages where the alleged illicit gains feature.

"I’m publicly asking the prosecution to indicate the basis for that freezing order. Although there are many co-accused, there are different proceedings, one for each accused. So the court must deal with each one individually, not en masse," he says.

The magistrate tells the defence not to repeat previous requests the court has already decided upon.

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Contact with 'shady people'

4.15pm Hillman's lawyer says his client was not even spoken to while the inquiry was being drawn up.

"Experts were appointed to assist and they usurped the role of the inquiring magistrate. Experts are meant to report technical or scientific facts about which the magistrate lacks skill or knowledge. In this case, the magistrate relied on the conclusions of those experts."

In Hillman's case, they said that he had a relationship/contact with a number of persons/companies with a shady reputation - and that was enough to trigger suspicions he may have been involved in money laundering, the lawyer says.

Filletti says the recent amendment to the law on freezing orders was to avoid carpet bombing, a blanket freeze.

"But we’ve come round full circle, back to what the legislator said should not be done. So the request for the freezing order should be turned down."

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Magistrate rejects defence argument on freezing orders

4.10pm The court observed that the amendments introduced recently granted the prosecution the right to set an amount.

The law does not make it obligatory for the court to hear evidence to determine whether the prosecution’s request is valid and thus to be upheld.

The AG must have reasonable reason to make that request and, in this case, the court deems that such reason exists. Even if the inquiring magistrate indicated lesser amounts for this purpose, the freezing order covers all property, illicit gains and thus subject to confiscation.

There could be interests on invested funds. The amounts could even be greater than the sums laid down by the AG.

The court may issue a temporary freezing order and deems that it cannot rely on some witnesses.

The court therefore rejected the defence’s requests.

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Back in court

4pm We are back in court to learn about the magistrate's decision in connection with the freezing orders and whether the prosecution should substantiate its request.

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'A black day for Malta'

3.45pm In a televised interview, Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech described Tuesday as a “black day” for Malta, as crowds rallied outside the courts to support Muscat, even though they were charged with serious crimes over the hospital scandal. 

“Justice is taking place, but it is still a black day. We would all prefer that this country is not experiencing today, a day where our country is being perceived as a jungle as we witness the scenes outside these courts,” Grech said.

We will soon have a separate report of that online. 

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The writing's on the wall

3.40pm A lot has been written about the hospitals scandal as well as the political fallout. It is, after all, the first time that a former prime minister is being criminally charged. It also happens to be one of the most popular prime ministers. 

This is the editorial published in Times of Malta today. We will have another one on the matter tomorrow. 

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The sentiment among protesters

3.15pm Meanwhile, the situation outside court has calmed down though dozens of Muscat supporters are still in the area waiting for the former prime minister to emerge from court. 

According to our reporters, the general sentiment among the crowd is that the magisterial inquiry and the criminal charges are politically motivated in an attempt to overthrow the Labour Party from the government. 

"You have no chance of ever getting into government," was a message repeatedly yelled at reporters. Many others lauded Muscat's term in office, saying he was the one who got them out of poverty.

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Sitting suspended 

2.50pm The court now briefly suspends the hearing to decide on the other requests by the defence. We might be in for a long session. 

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Substantiate your request, lawyers say

2.40pm To sum up the legal arguments being made in court, the defence are saying that once the AG came up with those amounts for the freezing orders, they must bring evidence to substantiate their request.

And then the defence needs time to go through all that evidence formally presented just minutes ago.

Lawyer Jason Grima says his client could not continue to exercise his profession since he was targeted by the attachment order.

"His life has been totally disrupted. The same goes for Jonathan Vella. There’s not a single line mentioning illicit gains for Vella. As for Spiteri there was a €50,000 bonus which the AG deemed to be illicit gains. Did he expect Spiteri to work for free? I think it’s the AG who did not read the inquiry. The AG cannot tell us what evidence there is to support those amounts.”

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Race to the airport?

2.25pm We don't know how long this court hearing will last, but if Jason Azzopardi is right, Muscat will need to be out of there by 6pm. The Repubblika lawyer and former PN MP claims Muscat will be catching a 7.15pm flight to Istanbul this evening, and will be using the ministerial lounge to do so.

Meanwhile, lawyer Michael Zammit Maempel finds it intriguing that police did not cordon off the law courts using security barriers. They were quick to do that during anti-government protests outside parliament in 2019, he recalls. Those barriers around parliament, by the way, are still there to this day.

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Illicit gains

2.25pm Refalo from the AG's office says that the evidence consists of the proces verbal just presented.

His reply triggers some ripples of laughter among the defence.

The AG lawyer seeks to explain: "There are the conclusions of the inquiring magistrate. Even those 1,200 pages given to all lawyers - and I trust they read them all - are enough. The last 100 pages give conclusions where the magistrate also indicated the amounts representing the illicit gains."

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Never given a right to legal assistance

2.15pm Lawyer Jason Grima says auditor Chris Spiteri was never given the right to legal assistance, not even when he was a suspect. The magistrate herself told him “you don’t need to get a lawyer.”

He was, of course, very surprised when a few days later the police went to his offices and seized half those boxes lying before you, Grima tells Magistrate Montebello.

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Questions about transactions

2.12pm Filletti fires a list of questions about Hillman and the same questions are put to registrar about Muscat. But he cannot answer about any transaction or amounts concerning both Hillman or Muscat.

Lawyer Edward Gatt asks if the defence will get a copy of the inquiry once it’s been presented in evidence.

The registrar says they’ve taken measures to ensure those copies are done. But he cannot give an indication how long that will take.

“I don’t know what’s in those boxes,” Calleja says.

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First witness - and the crowd picks up again...

2.05pm The first witness is the Criminal Courts Registrar Franklin Calleja. He presents the proces verbal of the inquiry triggered by NGO Repubblika. There are 78 boxes and a number of devices that are separate from those boxes.

Filletti asks Calleja if he saw the contents. He says he didn't.

He had testified in some part of the inquiry, adding that on April 25 the inquiry was sent to AG, together with the laptops. They came back to court from AG on May 24.

"Do you know what happened to those acts while at the AG office?"

"No."

"So there’s a gap during which the court did not have control over those devices?"

"No."

Filletti is heard raising his voice - and he has no choice - the crowd outside court is getting rowdy again.

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A right grilling

2pm Debono says Sciacca Grill was not mentioned anywhere in the inquiry, but the AG deemed fit to hang a €20 million freezing order over the company.

"All those boxes do not impress me! We don’t know what those boxes contain. Dr Refalo should state under oath how that request for 20 million emerges. They were not spoken to, no disclosure. Here we’re talking about fundamental rights," the lawyer charges.

Refalo says he has nothing to add. 

All defence teams agree that the AG should substantiate the request for the freezing order. The court deems that it should hear evidence in support of that claim. 

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Amounts gleaned from inquiry

1.55pm The magistrate points out that the court cannot reject the request but must issue a temporary freezing order.

AG lawyer Refalo says the amounts were gleaned through the 1,200-page inquiry as well as an indication by the inquiring magistrate.

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The sale of the hospitals had come with promises of change.

Lawyers challenge AG

1.40pm Meanwhile, inside court the lawyers are persisting over the arguments related to the freezing order. 

Lawyer Jason Grima says Jonathan Vella’s case is even worse. There’s not one single line in the 1,200-page inquiry which says that he took one cent. But the AG wants a freezing order of €30 million.

Franco Debono adds that it’s rather amazing how the AG could have read all those pages of the inquiry in a matter of days. The formerly draconian law on freezing orders was changed but the effects of the law are still basically unchanged.

Tonna Lowell, representing Brian Tonna and Cini says that the two and Nexia made no illicit gains, according to the inquiry report.

"But here the AG officials are telling the court to ignore all this and issue freezing orders for the amounts they’re citing. Before taking that decision, the court should hear the prosecution explain how they got those amounts."

Speaking on behalf of Meli and Gatt, Giannella de Marco says that when the AG asks for such freezing orders, first they must indicate on what basis they’re basing that claims.

"One cannot just uphold the request by seeing all these boxes here. They must show that the funds actually went through their [accused’s] accounts."

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'Political pirates' - Grech 

1.40pm Meanwhile, Opposition leader Bernard Grech has labelled Muscat and Co “political pirates” for their roles in the hospitals deal and slammed the prime minister for continually jumping to their defence.

“You deserve better than a government whose mind is occupied with defending those who’ve robbed you. You deserve better than a Prime Minister that has lost so much control over his own party members that they’re out protesting against his will,” he said.

The PN leader is expected to hold a televised address at 2.15pm

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'Substantiate the freezing order'

1.35pm Lawyer Filletti steps in too. He says the defence were only given conclusions of the inquiry. The request for freezing order did not come from the inquiry but from the AG.

"So that means that the AG went through all the inquiry and came up with the amounts to be frozen. There’s not one euro attributed to misappropriation by Hillman. So how can the AG say that Hillman made 30 million in illicit gains?," he says.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi agrees with his colleagues’ arguments. In case of Bondin, he is hit by a €12 million freeze but the inquiry only mentioned €2 million.

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Clash over freezing orders

1.30pm First witness is a representative from the tax commissioner. 

But lawyer Franco Debono, defending Sciacca Grill Litd, interrupts. The freezing order request should be tackled first, before hearing the witness, he says. The police had not spoken to his client, and the letter of rights not given. 

"We’re not talking about minimal amounts here, but millions," Debono argues.

The AG lawyer disagrees: it should first be the witnesses, then that request.

"It’s for consistency’s sake. We should follow chronological order as is normally done."

Lawyer Edward Gatt has something to add. He says the AG will now present the proces verbal and the duty for disclosure lies with the AG.

"Schembri and Mizzi had asked the court to order the AG to grant full disclosure. The prosecutor has now said that he will support the charges and request the freezing order with further evidence. So far, the defence was not given anything, not even the appendices to the proces verbal," he tells the court.

"How can we challenge the amounts to be frozen without having seen that evidence?" Gatt argues.

The magistrate does not accept that argument.

"Under what legal provision do you expect all evidence beforehand?" she says.

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'Not guilty'

1.10pm All those in the court room are pleading not guilty to the charges levelled out.

When asked to enter his plea, Muscat says: "absolutely not guilty".

The representatives of the companies charged also plead not guilty. 

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The freezing orders

1pm The prosecution’s requests for an attachment and freezing order for each person charged - and the amounts are massive: It's €30 million for Muscat, Mizzi, Schembri, Spiteri, Vella, Hillman and Sladden; €32 million for Meli; €20 million each for Tonna, Cini; €11 million for Vassallo; €7 million for Gatt; €12 million for bondin; €1 million for Conger Thompson .

The prosecution also requested partial or general interdiction in case of finding guilt.

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'Good vs bad'

12.50pm If you're just catching up, we are waiting until the charges continue to be read out in court. It's an unprecedented case in our legal history, so it's no surprise to see dozens of comments posted on social media.

Academic and radio presenter Andrew Azzopardi said it is no longer a case of 'PN vs PL' but one of 'good vs bad'. 

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'You're all liars'

12.30pm Our reporters Daniel Ellul and Mark Laurence Zammit tried to elicit some comments from the supporters present. The verdict is that Muscat is completely innocent and cannot believe the former prime minister is facing justice after all the good he has done.

We have an updated vox pop here. 

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Support for Keith Schembri

12.25pm We've compiled a clip showing former chief of staff Keith Schembri arriving in court. Schembri is charged with several crimes over the hospitals' deal. 

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A long charge sheet... very long

12.20pm Meanwhile, the charges are being read against the accused. Our court reporter (and lawyer) Edwina says it's the longest charge sheet she's ever come across!

We are not bothering to repeat it here because they're explained (in hopefully simpler terms) at the beginning of this blog post. 

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Manuel Cuschieri silent

12.05pm Manuel Cuschieri, the radio presenter who organised today's demonstration, has made an exit.

He declined to answer reporters' questions as he walked through Republic Street and away from the law courts, but there was no shortage of Labour supporters rushing to shake his hand, squeeze his shoulder or applaud him. One of Cuschieri's minders tried to confront journalists, but Cuschieri quickly stopped him.

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'Government-fuelled tribalism' - Metsola 

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola weighs into the discussion after the demonstration outside court. 

"The scenes outside the law courts today are not what Malta should be about... We need real leadership. We need this constant Government-fuelled tribalism to stop. Our politics needs to go beyond the Prime Minister's hyper-partisanship," she writes on social media. 

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Crowd disperses

11.51am Meanwhile, outside the court room the sizeable crowd is dispersing, with many seeking shade. Some will probably stay on site to greet Muscat upon exit. 

Daphne's memorial appears untouched, with candles still burning, despite having been surrounded by supporters. Our reporters heard several curses towards the slain journalist though.

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Details taken

11.50am The AG starts off with Joseph Muscat's criminal record and money laundering investigation order, then onto Mizzi, Schembri, Conger Thompson and Christopher Spiteri.

The magistrate initials and numbers each batch of documents. Next up are Jonathan Vella, David Joseph Meli, Ivan Vassallo, Mario Victor Gatt, Brian Bondin, Adrian Hillman, Pierre Sladden, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini.

Now details are taken of the companies facing the music, including Sciacca Grill, Kasco Engineering Ltd, FSV Limited, MTrace plc, Gateway Solutions Ltd, Technoline Ltd, Eurybates Ltd, Taomac and Nexia BT.

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Came to Malta 'voluntarily'

11.45am Lawyer Filletti says Hillman came to Malta out of his own will and was declaring that he renounced from the start his 'right of speciality' (which requests the State that the offender is tried only for the offence for which extradition is granted). Since he lives in the UK, he came to Malta voluntarily to contest the charges.

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Magistrate's warning

11.40am The magistrate warns everyone that these are judicial proceedings and all those in the hall must behave properly. No signs of disapproval will be tolerated.

Court says lawyers must address the court in an orderly manner. One lawyer from each team is to make submissions/questions to the  court. The magistrate insists on order in the sequence of persons charged as listed on the charge sheet.

This is not an ordinary case and proceedings have to be conducted in an orderly manner. Given the large number of persons charged and lawyers involved, the court has set some guidelines at the very start.

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78 boxes of evidence

11.35am The magistrate takes her seat. There are 78 boxes of evidence positioned in front of the deputy’s bench. 

The magistrate is taking down the accused’s attendance, reading out each name. 

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Case about to start

11.30am The attention now shifts to the court room. Journalists are on one side of the room, the families of the accused on the other. Magistrate Rachel Montebello warns there should be no photos taken. 

The defence teams include Stefano Filletti, Jason Grima, Arthur Azzopardi, Sean Zammit, Mark Vassallo, Edward Gatt, Marion Camilleri, Franco Debono and Chris Cilia, Dean Hili, Veronique Dalli, Andre’ Portelli, Giannella De Marco, Charles Mercieca, Stephen Tonna Lowell, Luke Dalli, Vincent Galea, Rachel Powell, Charlon Gouder, Dominic Micallef, Ishmael Psaila and Etienne Borg Ferranti, Shazoo Ghaznavi, David Bonello, Alex Scerri Herrera, Jessica Formosa and Jeannine Depasquale.

The prosecution are on the opposite side. There are Attorney General lawyers Francesco Refalo, Rebekah Spiteri, Shelby Aquilina and Anthony Vella, and superintendents Fabian Fleri and Hubert Cini and inspector Wayne Rodney Borg.

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Crowded court room

11.15am We were expecting this to happen, but the court building is now packed with people. The area outside Hall 22 is milling with people: persons charged, their legal teams, police, securities, family, media... For lawyers getting through a normal workday it's a headache.

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Loud cheers as Muscat arrives

11am As expected, Muscat's arrival outside court is greeted with a roar, with many chanting "Joseph, Joseph" before breaking into the Labour Party anthem. He is accompanied by Michelle, his wife. 

We apologise for the poor connection during our Facebook live stream. It was out of our control. Here are some other clips:

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Mizzi arrives to hero's welcome: 'These are just conjectures'

10.55am To chants of 'viva l-Labour', former health minister Konrad Mizzi is given a rapturous welcome as he arrives outside court. Mizzi resigned in disgrace in 2019 and has since been accused of multiple crimes. 

Speaking to reporters outside court, Mizzi lashes out at the magistrate's inquiry, saying it is full of conjectures, biased and lies and that he never received any money.

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'The lion of Malta'

10.35am Mark Laurence Zammit has spoken to Muscat supporters outside court. All of them say they have no doubt the former prime minister is innocent. But the focus is more of the "good" he's done for the country.

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'There are two Maltas'

10.30am Daphne Caruana Galizia's sister Mandy Mallia writes on social media: "Daphne always - correctly - said that there are ‘two Maltas’.  Today, there is further proof of it in the hundreds who have turned up outside court in support of disgraced prime minister #JosephMuscat, who is facing a raft of serious criminal charges."

Nationalist MEP David Casa also pays tribute to Caruana Galizia. 

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Tense atmosphere

10.15am Meanwhile outside court hall 22, there are a number of familiar faces: Adrian Hillman, Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Christopher Spiteri, David Joseph Meli, Pierre Sladden and Brian Bondin. They are all seated and the atmosphere is tense. 

Interesting to note that some of the persons charged today are still going through criminal proceedings linked to separate money laundering charges which started three years ago. 

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Repubblika's request turned down

10.05am Magistrate Rachel Montebello has turned down a request by Repubblika to be admitted as injured party in the proceedings. 

For Repubblika’s application to succeed it had to show a concrete and identifiable interest and that it is ‘injured’ by the crimes allegedly committed. This is even more so in proceedings like these where some of the persons charged held top government posts. 

The applicant had to show an identifiable interest including physical, material, social or emotional damage, or direct or indirect financial loss, the magistrate said.

In this case, the identifiable victim directly targeted by the commission of the alleged crimes is none other than the State itself or, as far as alleged misappropriation or illegal profits are concerned, the government.

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Keith Schembri in court

10am Our journalist Jacob Borg asked Keith Schembri why he was using a fake e-mail to communicate with Vitals. He got no response. 

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'He did no wrong'

9.55am Our journalist Mark Laurence Zammit is trying to get comments from the crowd. The verdict is that Muscat did no wrong and that just like Christ, "he's being crucified".

Here's a sample of what we have so far. We'll be bringing you a full clip shortly. 

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Riled up crowd

9.40am We have reporters outside court and we're being told the crowd's really riled up. There's a strong police presence outside - with one officer assigned to each journalist on duty. 

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Accused start gathering

9.30am Our court reporter Edwina Brincat says a number of those to be charged are already inside the halls of court. These include Pierre Sladden, Brian Bondin, Ivan Vassallo and Adrian Hillman. 

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Muscat supporters gather

9.20am Muscat's supporters have been told to gather in support at 10am but a sizeable number are already outside the law courts in Republic Street. 

Chants of "viva l-Labour" and "ġo kastilja ma tidħlux" (you will never enter Castille) echo through the area.

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Daphne is watching

9am Activists from Occupy Justice spruced up the memorial to assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia on Monday night - the monument lies right in front of the court entrance - where a number of those she wrote about will enter to face justice. 

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Outrage over misdiagnosed health funds

8.50am There has been palpable anger in the run-up to today's arraignments. Many have expressed their disgust over the way money intended to be routed towards health services have ended up routed elsewhere.

Former PD deputy leader Anthony Buttigieg, a doctor, summed up the sentiments of many through a Facebook post. 

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Who is facing charges today?

• Joseph Muscat
• Konrad Mizzi
• Keith Schembri
• Clarence John Conger
• Christopher Spiteri
• Jonathan Vella
• David Joseph Meli
• Ivan Vassallo
• Mario Victor Gatt
• Brian Bondin
• Adrian Hillman
• Pierre Sladden
• Brian Tonna
• Karl Cini
• Sciacca Grill Ltd 
• Kasco Engineering Co Ltd
• FSV Ltd
• MTrace Plc
• Gateway Solutions Ltd
• Technoline Ltd
• Eurybates Ltd
• Taomac 
• Nexia BT

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What charges are they facing?

Charges have been issued by the Republic of Malta vs Joseph Muscat and co.

All 14 individuals and nine companies stand charged with money laundering. They are variously charged with misappropriation, fraud, making fraudulent gains, involvement in a criminal association, setting up a group of more than 10 to commit a crime subject to imprisonment of more than four years. 

Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi sought or accepted bribes, money or other advantages. 

Schembri is separately charged as chief of staff for soliciting money or other benefits he was not entitled to. He is also charged with openly or secretly taking private interests in a tender or contract, leaking confidential information and committing crimes he was duty bound to prevent. 

David Meli allegedly bribed Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi.

Tonna and Cini allegedly assisted Muscat in receiving those bribes. They also assisted Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi in trading in influence. 

Thompson and Spiteri allegedly accepted bribes. Spiteri, as auditor, made false declarations in a public document, divulged professional secrets, made under-declarations for tax purposes on behalf of Shaukat Ali and his relatives. He also breached accountancy laws, committed document fraud and committed perjury when testifying in the magisterial inquiry. 

All persons and companies will be jointly and variously charged under summons, not arrest. They must all be present for the case to take off. The court can issue an arrest warrant against any of those who fail to turn up when duly notified. 

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So what happened?

In 2015, the government signed a multi-billion agreement to redevelop and operate three public hospitals with a private company called Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) Ltd, a company with no previous experience. 

Deadlines for several projects are missed as questions are asked over whether the investors can deliver on their pledges.

The National Audit Office said in 2020 that the government’s work to verify the deal with VGH and its capacity to run three public hospitals was “grossly inadequate”.

The contract was transferred in 2018 to a US company named Steward Health Care.

That same year, then PN leader Adrian Delia files a court case to rescind the concession. The case would eventually conclude in February 2023, with the courts cancelling the deal altogether, describing it as "fraudulent".

A Times of Malta investigation last year showed Muscat got close to €482,000 in various consultancy payments in year of resignation.

Fast forward to earlier this month and a magisterial inquiry - four years in the making - recommended serious charges against a number of high-profile individuals and companies, sparking a political war. 

The last of three reports by the auditor general published revealed that a total of €456 million was paid to Vitals and Steward throughout the concession period. Investigators believe Vitals – and later Steward – stakeholders had no intention of running Maltese hospitals for the 30-year lease period they agreed to.

Last Sunday, our online editor Bertrand Borg pieced together the complex web of the deal, which appeared designed to divert public money into private pockets.

This included a catering company suspected to be involved in a 10% kickback scheme, a medical equipment supplier which had hidden owners, and a secret shareholder who received monthly €100,000 consultancy payments.

All those charged deny wrongdoing.