Rule of law NGO Repubblika has filed a court application seeking the immediate arrest of Joseph Muscat, Chris Cardona, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri as well as Mizzi’s former permanent secretary Ronald Mizzi, among others, in connection with the Steward Healthcare hospitals deal.

It follows the publication on Monday of the third report on the hospitals concession by the National Audit Office, which concluded that Mizzi had engineered a €100 million exit clause for Steward by misleading the Cabinet of ministers. 

In a press conference in front of the law courts in Valletta, Repubblika president Robert Aquilina said that the group had filed an application with the inquiring magistrate to include the latest audit report in its investigation and make note of its conclusions. Repubblika had sparked the magisterial inquiry into the hospitals deal in 2019.  

Aquilina claimed that some of the people involved in the hospitals deal were “making preparations to flee Malta” and in light of this, the application also asked the court to take all the necessary steps to prevent any further loss of evidence and for the principal actors in the hospitals deal to be arrested immediately to answer for their actions. 

Repubblika also asked the inquiring magistrate to order the Attorney General to issue a so-called certificate of impunity, which would allow anyone complicit in the deal to turncoat on their accomplices and uncover the extent of corrupt practices in the deal.

Aquilina said that former Vitals director Ram Tumuluri had expressed willingness to blow the lid off of how the Steward buyout was engineered but that ultimately no action was taken.

“The point is not to protect any criminals but to uncover the truth in its entirety,” Aquilina said.