A hard-charging lawyer who accused the authorities of protecting “prominent individuals” involved in crimes has renounced his brief as self-confessed hitman Vince Muscat’s legal representative.
Times of Malta is informed that Marc Sant has found alternative employment outside of criminal practice.
Sant renounced his brief after long complaining about police “inaction” over information his former client offered to give on an array of violent crimes carried out by a criminal gang between 2010 and 2017.
Last year, Sant filed a court application on behalf of Muscat, also known as il-Koħħu, accusing the authorities of unnecessary delays in drawing up a report about whether the information implicating “prominent individuals” warranted a presidential pardon.
Two of the “prominent individuals” are widely known to be former economy minister Chris Cardona and OPM minister Carmelo Abela.
Both have refuted any links with criminal activity.
Contacted for comment, Sant confirmed he had renounced his brief.
Asked if his departure was due to this perceived inaction by the police, Sant said cryptically that “this was not what was agreed”.
In the months prior to resigning his brief, Sant secured a presidential pardon for his former client to tell-all about the 2015 assassination of lawyer Carmel Chircop.
Muscat’s testimony about the murder helped lead to the prosecution of Adrian Agius and his associate, Jamie Vella in February.
In a separate deal, Muscat confessed to his role in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in exchange for a reduced sentence of 15 years imprisonment.
The confession and testimony about the murder led to the prosecution of Adrian Agius’s brother, Robert, for allegedly supplying the bomb used to blow up Caruana Galizia in 2017.
Muscat had also linked the former economy minister to an aborted 2015 plot to kill the journalist, a claim Cardona dismissed as “pure evil fiction”.
Investigators have treated Muscat’s claim with caution, as much of the information about the alleged plot is based on hearsay evidence rather than direct knowledge.
An attempt to gain a further pardon in exchange for information about people involved in the botched 2010 heist on HSBC’s Qormi headquarters was rejected by the cabinet.
Muscat is set to face a trial over his alleged involved in the crime.
A similar pardon request on the HSBC heist by Alfred Degiorgio, an alleged co-conspirator in the Caruana Galizia assassination, was also rejected. Both men have indicated they can implicate a sitting minister, widely understood to be Carmelo Abela, in the planning of the failed robbery.
At the time, Abela, a former HSBC employee, had access to security equipment used to generate key cards suspected to have been used by the robbers to enter secure parts of the bank.
Abela has vehemently denied any role in the crime.