The NGO Repubblika has claimed to have information which that political pressure is being put on members of the police force to not arraign any Labour politician – past or present – on charges of corruption before the next general election.

This was stated by Repubblika President Robert Aquilina in a press conference outside St. Luke’s Hospital on Wednesday morning.

“This political pressure is a scandal in itself.  Justice should not look at any faces, and definitely should not look at the partisan needs of a party or politician,” he said.

Aquilina dedicated the bulk of his speech to a magisterial inquiry which was opened into the deal which saw three state hospitals sold to Vitals Global Healthcare, a concession which has since passed on to Steward Health Care.

The deal has been the subject of criticism, suspicion, and investigation almost from the get-go, with the National Audit Office being the most recent to issue a scathing review of several aspects of the deal.

Aquilina noted that they had called for a magisterial inquiry in a 153-page court filing in May 2019, where they explained how “Konrad Mizzi, Chris Cardona, and Edward Scicluna had given an unjust and illegal advantage to the owners of a private company so that it is that company which is chosen – as in fact happened – to take a contract worth over €2 billion for the leadership of three state hospitals in Malta and Gozo.”

He said that they had insisted that the behaviour of the three then-Ministers raised reasonable suspicion that corruption, money laundering, and other serious crimes had been committed in this deal.

That step had been taken, he said, because the police force and the attorney general had remained motionless in the face of these “obscenities.”

Aquilina reminded that the three ministers did everything for an inquiry not to take place, and after a magistrate accepted the request for an investigation, the ministers took the matter to a Judge – Giovanni Grixti – who said that there was nothing to investigate.

Repubblika had, the day after, filed the same case again, and the magistrate once again accepted the request for an inquiry.

That inquiry has now been ongoing for two years and eight months, Aquilina said.

“Now that 32 months have passed since the inquiry we asked for began, we think that it is legitimate to start expecting that the inquiry is finalised in the near future, so we can start seeing results… in simple words: so we start seeing politicians and other people who have been involved in corruption, money laundering, and other crimes taken to court,” Aquilina said.

He said that it is evident that Police Commissioner Angelo  Gafa and Assistant Commissioner Alexandra Mamo are doing as their predecessors and not investigating, and therefore not fulfilling their duties.

Aquilina said that the police has enough evidence in hand to open a case in court, something which he said not only they know but which the protagonists in this “corrupt contract.”

He warned Gafa and Mamo that they will be held responsible if, because of their dragging of their feet, someone of these criminals would have managed to escape from Malta.

They appealed to those people in the country’s institutions who want to fulfil their duty with integrity, saying that it is difficult to work with ethics when they see only abuse and impunity around them.  “We will not leave you alone,” he said.

Secondly, he asked people of good will to push a message of hope, and to continue to convince more and more people that the country cannot be led in this manner.