A judge has ordered the exhibition of an evaluation report cited by minister Konrad Mizzi in a court case over the Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) hospital takeover deal.

In a sitting in November, Mizzi had sworn before the court that government had relied on the recommendation of an evaluation board before entering into its hospital privatisation deal with now-defunct Vitals Global Healthcare.

PN leader Adrian Delia had filed the case against Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Attorney General, Malta Industrial Parks and VGH, demanding that the Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo hospitals be “given back to the people” because of contract violations.

The defendants had objected to the request for the presentation of the report in court.

But in a decree handed down yesterday, Mr. Justice Francesco Depasquale said that as Mizzi had made “extensive reference” to the report and had told the court that he had relied on it, “it would be opportune that this evaluation report, together with other, connected, reports be exhibited in these proceedings so that the truth of the facts stated by him [Mizzi] is verified and corroborated.”

The case continues on Wednesday.