Joseph Muscat refused to apologise. “If you read the sentence that’s what it says, not that the government defrauded the people but that the government was defrauded... in all of this the government was the victim. I take full responsibility.” That was way back in March when the first court annulled the hospitals concession. “I expect the truth to be known in full and the case to continue,” Muscat declared.

The case continued. The full truth is out. “The conclusions of this court are different from those of the first court.” Muscat wasn’t defrauded. He defrauded the nation.

Muscat and his government drew up fake contracts (simulati) “not to provide better medical services but to achieve other aims”. “In this court’s judgement, this wasn’t deception (qerq) from one side and gullibility (inġenwità) from the other, as the first court believed, but collusion between Vitals/Steward and senior government officials.”

Muscat now has the truth. So do we. The court was categorically clear why Muscat struck the Vitals deal. “The intention behind the Vitals concession... was simply to serve as a means to funnel money from state coffers into the pockets of Vitals.”

In any other country, Muscat would already have been arrested. The court explicitly declared that Muscat and his collaborators colluded with Vitals to rob the country of millions of euros. The concession wasn’t intended to improve healthcare or the economy, the court declared.

The court denounced Muscat for giving Vitals “privileged information”. It accused him of awarding Vitals the concession despite knowing full well the project was not deliverable. It publicly announced that “the intention behind the contract wasn’t to render economic benefits to the country”. “What was stated about the contract’s legal basis is the fruit of simulation and collusion – the contract lacks a genuine legal basis,”the court decided.

The court ordered Muscat, the AG, Indis CEO, Lands Authority CEO and the chairman of Lands Board of Governors to bear half the expenses of the first grade and one third of the expenses of the main appeal. Of course, Muscat won’t pay a penny. We, the taxpayers, will pay his costs. But they’re a mere trifle compared to the hundreds of millions Muscat and Robert Abela gave Vitals and Steward.

In March, Muscat bragged on Facebook: “I always acted in the interests of the nation and people of goodwill know it.”

The court certainly doesn’t. It lambasted Muscat and his “senior officials”. They didn’t protect the national interests. The court declared: “It is unclear why whoever was meant to protect the national interest failed to do so and instead had at heart (aktar kellu ghal qalbu) the interests of Vitals/Steward.” Maybe they should look at Accutor’s payments to Muscat for a reason.

Repeatedly, the court sentence highlights the failure of Muscat and his government to protect national interests. Its incredulity at Muscat’s shameless betrayal of the nation is palpable: “The reaction of those who should have protected the interests of the nation when they saw one milestone after another passing without anything done wasn’t to seek remedies envisaged by the contract but to persistently extend deadlines in favour of Vitals/Steward without them giving anything back. On the contrary, payments running into millions of euros continued.”

“Instead of exposing the fact that the project was not deliverable, the impression was given (to the public) that everything was still progressing well.”

Not only did Muscat not protect the national interest, according to the court he continued to pump millions of euros into Vitals despite their utter failure to fulfil any of their obligations and then hoodwinked the nation by convincing them that all was well.

In any other country, Joseph Muscat would already have been arrested- Kevin Cassar

“Those who had the duty to protect the national interest gave extension after another to conceal the fact that the agreement was just a facade and not ‘the real deal’ and continued to pay millions of euros to Vitals/Steward despite the fact that they were not meeting their obligations,” the sentence reads.

In a final dig at Muscat’s deception, the court noted that “It had to be Adrian Delia, and not those responsible for protecting national interests, to seek a remedy through this case”.

Muscat betrayed the nation. He failed to protect our interests. And if it weren’t for Delia’s case, the country would have lost hundreds of millions more. The NAO estimated that Muscat’s Vitals fraudulent deal was worth €4 billion – four thousand million euro.

Muscat wasn’t the only one flogged by the court. There’s Abela too. The court denounces Abela who also continued to pay millions into Steward’s coffers. For months, his government defended the position of Vitals/Steward in court and parliament. “Only when the appeal was lodged did they start to defend the sentence that proved Adrian Delia right,” the court sentence reads.

Steward failed to meet targets. Yet, Abela continued to pay them. He took no steps to terminate the contract and regain control of the hospitals until March 2023, when the court sentence declared the concession fraudulent.

“The government did not wait for this judgment to take back control of the hospitals,” Abela stated. No, he just waited for years and paid Steward millions when he knew full well they weren’t delivering. He publicly intimidated the magistrate investigating the concession after the raid on Muscat’s residence.

“In every procedure, the government will continue to safeguard the national interest,” Abela bluffed.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana commented: “The government is still looking into the judgment.” It’s well beyond that. It’s the police commissioner and the AG who should be closely examining that court sentence.

“I have nothing to be afraid of,” Muscat stated boldly in March. He must be having second thoughts now. Otherwise, why attempt to remove the magistrate from the Vitals case?

Now we know why: Muscat colluded with Vitals “to siphon money from state coffers into the pockets of Vitals”.

If that’s not criminal, I don’t know what is. That noose is getting tighter and tighter.

Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.