Joseph Muscat will answer to corruption charges today, in what will be a landmark case against a former prime minister.

The police are set to be on high alert over fears that tension could boil over when Labour supporters are expected to gather en masse to support Muscat outside the law courts.

Supporters have been told to gather in Valletta at 10am, while the arraignments are expected to start an hour later. Times of Malta will be running a live blog. 

A strong police presence is expected outside the lawcourts as the former prime minister and 22 others enter the building to face the charges.

Muscat is facing a raft of charges, including money laundering, corruption, bribery, and setting up a criminal organisation.

His co-defendants will include his former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former health minister Konrad Mizzi.

All three deny wrongdoing.

Apart from the three government officials, a network of 20 other individuals and companies will be charged.

The case revolves around a €4 billion deal signed by Muscat’s government to hand the running of three public hospitals to suspected fraudsters.

Vitals Global Healthcare was awarded the concession in 2015, on the back of what investigators allege was a rigged tendering process.

Investigators who pored over thousands of e-mails, documents and banking records have likened the deal to a “Ponzi scheme”.

Muscat, Mizzi and Schembri are all suspected to have illicitly benefitted from a “political support fund” set up by Steward Health Care, who took over the concession from Vitals in 2018. 

Steward was booted out of the concession by a civil court last year on fraud grounds, with the three hospitals being returned to the government.

The ex-prime minister is being charged by summons, meaning he is not under arrest and will freely make his way inside and back out of court.

The arraignment will likely be the first salvo in a case that could well drag on for years.

The gravity of the charges means the ex-government officials will likely face a jury trial.

Brian Tonna and Karl Cini, two accountants who set up “money laundering structures” for Mizzi and Schembri in Panama will also be charged.

David Meli, who was a lawyer for both Vitals and Steward, will similarly be in the dock on charges of money laundering and bribing government officials, alongside Vitals’ auditor Chris Spiteri.

Another key individual facing charges today is Ivan Vassallo, the director of medical supply company Technoline.

Vassallo is alleged to have been complicit in plans to front Technoline on behalf of Schembri and Mizzi. Former Allied Newspapers managing director Adrian Hillman and businessman Pierre Sladden will similarly be charged in connection with the Technoline plan.

The arraignments will be heard in Hall 22 – the largest courtroom – with the balcony normally available to the public instead reserved for the press and family members of the accused.

The area downstairs will be reserved for defendants, prosecution, defence and court staff.

Insiders who spoke to Times of Malta say Muscat’s supporters have been rallying around to draw a large crowd in Valletta this morning.

Muscat has repeatedly claimed he was innocent of the accusations.

The drama leading to today’s arraignment continued yesterday with three top civil servants insisting the Attorney General was with them in talks over the hospitals concession, and therefore has a conflict of interest.

While Robert Abela insisted yesterday that the institutions should be allowed to do their work, Opposition leader Bernard Grech said the prime minister is complicit in the hospitals scandal.