George Vella refused to divulge to the court information given to him by Ġanni Psaila, il-Pupa, about incidents linked to Raymond Caruana’s murder. His excuse was that he was bound by professional secrecy. Of course, that’s utter nonsense. Vella was not bound by professional secrecy. This was not a professional confidentiality issue.
That same day, February 3, 1997, Psaila testified that, on December 1, 1986, he was in a Land Rover with Anthony Carabott, it-Totò. They met Minister Karmenu Vella’s driver, Karmenu Farrugia, in the ministerial car and drove to Tarxien. Farrugia produced a submachine gun and fired at the Nationalist Party club.
Forensic investigations revealed that the very same weapon killed Caruana in Gudja, four days later. The police got hold of that weapon. Instead of using it to identify who shot at the PN club in Tarxien and later killed Caruana in Gudja, they planted it in the farm of an innocent man. Pietru Pawl Busuttil was framed for Caruana’s murder. Another man’s life was destroyed.
That submachine gun belonged to Nicholas Ellul, iċ-Ċaqwes, one of Minister Wistin Abela’s thugs. Ellul was arrested and charged with Caruana’s murder on Christmas Eve of 1990. Ten years later, he overdosed, before having given evidence.
Psaila, il-Pupa, who told Vella what happened on the night of the shooting at Tarxien, expressed his intention of revealing his secrets. Soon after, he suffered grievous injuries and was left permanently crippled when a bomb exploded in his Fiat 500. His miraculous survival was in vain. He later died in mysterious circumstances, purportedly falling into a shaft while being chased by police officers despite the injuries to his legs suffered in the car bomb.
Ellul, the man accused of Caruana’s murder, killed himself before testifying in court. The main witness, Psaila, died in suspicious circumstances before revealing any details.
Caruana’s family still grapple with the torment and agony of their loss. Raymond’s brother, Jimmy commented: “Our greatest disappointment is that, after all these years, no one has been brought to justice. We feel that his death was treated like a farm animal’s.”
On the eve of the 2013 election, then opposition leader Joseph Muscat opportunistically told Caruana’s family: “The Labour Party is not protecting anybody.” So why was Vella refusing to testify in court about what Psaila told him? “Justice needs to be done, we need to close this dark chapter,” Muscat added.
President Vella can help close that dark chapter. He can divulge to the police or the magistrate the information Psaila gave him about that fateful night in Tarxien. That might provide some closure for the family still grieving their cruel loss. It would provide some much-needed truth. It might bring the nation some reconciliation.
Vella must know that the circumstances relating to the information Psaila gave him is not covered by patient confidentiality. Patient-doctor confidentiality applies only to matters relating to their health, not to crimes they might have been involved in or witness to. Speaking to your doctor when you meet him at the local supermarket or in the street is not covered by patient confidentiality.
If I walk into my GP’s clinic for a sore throat and break into a story about how I accompanied some friends from Żejtun who proceeded to fire a machine gun at a party club, there cannot be any expectation of patient confidentiality. My GP won’t tell the police about the condition of my throat. But he damn well should tell them about the submachine gun.
Raymond Caruana’s family still grapple with the torment and agony of their loss- Kevin Cassar
Even if the information provided by Psaila to Vella occurred during a proper patient-doctor consultation, patient confidentiality is not absolute. There are clear situations where disclosure of patient information by a doctor is not only justified but is required, even legally required.
A doctor is legally obliged to disclose information about actual or suspected child abuse. All doctors are legally obliged to report grievous bodily harm. All doctors are obliged to report a sexually transmitted disease and malignancy, with or without the patient’s consent. All doctors must report a patient who is unfit to drive whether the patient consents or not.
The president should consult the General Medical Council’s succinct document ‘Confidentiality’. That document clearly lists situations when a doctor not only can, or should, but must disclose that information. Point 17 of that document states: “You must disclose information if you are ordered to do so by a judge or presiding officer of a court.” Vella was asked by the court to divulge that information. He refused on grounds of confidentiality. He was wrong. And the court was wrong in not pressing him to testify.
Doctors have a duty of confidentiality to patients but they also have a wider duty to protect the public. Point 65 of the GMC document could not be clearer. It explains another situation where disclosure is required. “Such a situation might arise, for example if a disclosure would be likely to be necessary for detection or prosecution of serious crime, especially crimes against the person.” What more serious crime against the person could there be than cold blooded murder?
Almost 25 years after his refusal to disclose information to the court on a false pretext, Vella is still making excuses.
“When the time comes, in the future, we will release the whole story and we will be able to speak with more liberty than during the presidency.” This was the president’s excuse for refusing to reply to questions about his refusal to resign over the IVF Bill.
Vella is still in time to redeem himself. He can provide some solace to Caruana’s family and to the nation. But what are the chances that the man who voted to protect Konrad Mizzi, who flew abroad to escape his responsibilities, yet who clung desperately to his constitutional role will do the right thing?
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.