Earlier this evening, #occupyjustice activists hung a money bag depicting the sum of €400 million "on a Judas tree outside Castille", symbolising the money stolen from Maltese citizens from the government’s fraudulent deal with Vitals/Steward.

The activists want to emphasise the way we have been unforgivably betrayed by those who signed the contract to sell our hospitals to third parties with no past experience in healthcare management. A betrayal in which Malta’s prized healthcare system was sold in a corrupt deal for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver – a ‘real deal’ that proved to be anything but.

On 24 February, a landmark court judgment by Judge Francesco Depasquale starkly spelled out how the Vitals/Steward deal was fraudulent before it was even signed, the activists said in a statement. During its implementation, not only did the Government of Malta pay almost €400 million to the company to run the hospitals, barely a cent of the €200 million promised by Vitals/Steward in investment – via infrastructure, equipment and a new Gozo hospital – was spent. Millions down the drain that could and should have been spent for the benefit of all Maltese and Gozitans, the statement said.

The hospitals deal was just one of the myriad scandals uncovered by assassinated investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who first highlighted the suspicious agreement in March 2015 – eight years ago. Sadly, it doesn’t surprise us that today, more than a month after the court judgement, no-one has resigned, let alone been charged with corruption. Also unsurprising is the fact that Daphne Caruana Galizia has yet again been proven right, the activists said.

#occupyjustice said it continues to demand answers from the authorities as to why the people in government behind this fraudulent deal have not been made to answer for their actions. This is yet another strand in the web of corruption, which started in Castille led by Joseph Muscat and his cronies and continues to this day. Only when the full truth is known and when all involved in this, and in the myriad cases of corruption that continue to plague us can Malta start to heal.

#occupyjustice demanded the good governance "we have been denied, so that Malta’s once-good reputation is restored after years of filth".

"This is our nation, this is our home, and we are the people. We expect better. We deserve better. We demand better," they said.