Updated 12pm
People who are to face criminal charges in connection with the Vitals hospitals deal are being shown extracts of a secret magisterial inquiry into it, shadow minister for justice Karol Aquilina has alleged.
Aquilina said the report is being held under lock and key in a room at the prime minister's office that is guarded around the clock. A small number of people has been given access to extracts of it, to help them prepare for their arrest or arraignment, he claims.
Those people have been warned not to discuss the contents with anyone, including their families, he added.
In a swift reply, the Office of the Prime Minister dismissed Aquilina's claims, saying the Nationalist Party was resorting to gimmicks and inventions. It accused Aquilina of lying.
Grech asks AG for copy of inquiry
PN leader Bernard Grech said on Monday that he has written to Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg to ask her to provide the Opposition with a copy of the inquiry.
Grech said it was clear the prime minister had access to the inquiry and was now using it to gain political mileage and protect himself in the process.
The public could not be asked to draw their conclusions about the inquiry, without knowing its contents, the PN leader said.
"We want the magisterial inquiry to be published so that you have all the information," Grech said at a press conference.
The PN would take legal action to force the inquiry to be published if the AG did not do so, he said. It had adopted a similar course of action when the AG refused to publish the full Egrant inquiry. A court eventually forced the AG to make that document available.
Repubblika makes court request for report copy
It appears unlikely that the AG will agree to provide a copy of the inquiry to the Opposition, given that Repubblika - the NGO which triggered the inquiry by filing a criminal complaint in 2019 - has also had similar requests ignored.
On Monday, the rule of law group said it had made a formal request in court to be handed a full copy of the magisterial inquiry.
It had initially said it wanted the inquiry's conclusions to be made public.
In its court request, Repubblika said that the prime minister and justice minister had both been handed copies of the report while it hadn't, despite having kicked off the inquiry in the first place five years ago.
Its two requests to the Attorney General to be handed a copy of the report had been ignored, it said. This breached the provisions of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The group said it would take further action if its request continued to be ignored.
The inquiry was concluded late last month and is expected to lead to a number of top officials, including politicians, being charged. Former prime minister Joseph Muscat has said he expects to be among those to face criminal charges.
The inquiry was tasked with assessing whether Muscat, his ministers or officials committed any crimes in connection with the privatisation deal that handed three state hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare.
That deal was annulled by a court last year, which ruled that it was tainted by fraud, that Vitals and its successor Steward Health Care had failed to fulfil contractual obligations and that top government officials had colluded against the national interest.
That court case was filed by former Opposition leader Adrian Delia.