Former Labour Party deputy leader and seasoned lawyer Joe Brincat has come up in defence of Joseph Muscat, saying that the rights of the former Prime Minister were breached when the police raided his home so early on Wednesday.

Police officers went to Muscat’s home at 7am as part of investigations into the deal with which three public hospitals were passed on to the private sector. Muscat said that the police had even confiscated his daughters’ mobile phones.

The raid sparked uproar in Labour Party circles, with MPs questioning why Prime Minister Robert Abela had done nothing to sop the raid. Times of Malta today reports that MPs were called to Castille in small groups for meetings with the PM on the matter. Labour former officials including Jason Micallef and Manuel Cuschieri called for Labour supporters to take to the streets.

In a post on Facebook, Brincat said that Muscat and his family suffered a breach of their rights according to article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights.

He referred to a decision taken in 1994 when the Maltese courts had ruled that there had been a breach of privacy when a search had been carried out by the police at 7.30am at the home of former Labour Minister Lorry Sant.

The case had been filed by Sant against the Commissioner of Police and others, and the decision had been taken on 12 January 1994 by the Constitutional Court, presided by the late Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, then Chief Justice, together with Mr Justice Lino Agius and Mr Justice Joseph Said Pullicino.

The court, in its ruling, had censured the police for carrying out the raid at 7.30am and had even taken footage of the proceedings, Brincat said.

Reading from the judgment, Brincat said that the court had ruled that the privacy of the San family had been breached.

Although the court had ruled that the search was required, what was wrong was that it took place at 7.30am and that footage was taken.

Was there a need for the search to be carried out so early when people are waking up, the court had said, according to Brincat.

There would not have been any problem is the police search had been carried out at 9am, just 90 minutes later, Brincat said, quoting from the judgment. At this hour – 9am – interference in people’s lives would be reduced, the judgment said.