The State Advocate on Friday declared that he had no further evidence to produce in a case by the Opposition, which is arguing he has to recover the funds in the now defunct hospitals' deal "in the public interest".
This led to the adjournment of the case to next month for the government, as the party intervening in the case, to put forward its evidence.
Last year, PN leader Bernard Grech and Nationalist MP Adrian Delia asked the court to order the State Advocate to take action against “present and past government officials involved in the [hospitals privatisation] deal”.
They followed up that request by calling upon the court to handle the case with urgency since the subject matter was of national interest.
After considering the Opposition’s request and the State Advocate’s objections, the court concluded that it did not see the need for urgency as claimed by the applicants. Although it turned down the Opposition's request for the case to be heard with urgency, it observed that the lawsuit deserved priority.
The action follows up on the landmark judgment delivered in October annulling the contract.
When the case was called on Friday, the Prime Minister and Justice Minister on the one hand, and the Opposition leader together with Delia, were all present in court.
Lawyer Julian Farrugia from the State Advocate's office, minuted that they would not cross-examine Delia, as one of the applicants.
But he clarified and stressed that the State Advocate as respondent did not agree with, nor accept, the observations and opinions presented by Delia for reasons that State Advocate Chris Soler had already outlined when testifying.
Upon Farrugia's suggestion, the parties jointly minuted that there was no issue regarding the authenticity of all documents presented so far.
Farrugia finally declared that the State Advocate had no further evidence to put forward.
That declaration effectively sent the ball into the government's court as a party intervening in the suit.
Mr Justice Toni Abela then deferred the case to May for the government to put forward all evidence.