The Attorney General and the police commissioner are treating the people accused in connection with the hospitals scandal with “kid gloves”, NGO Repubblika charged on Thursday.

Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, former Deputy Prime Minister, Chris Fearne, former minister Konrad Mizzi and former Finance Minister, Edward Scicluna (now Central Bank Governor) are facing criminal charges following a magisterial inquiry into the handing over of three public hospitals to be run by private companies.

Police Commissioner, Angelo Gafa’  and the Attorney General, Victoria Buttigieg, are “hiding” and being negligent in their duty, as well as creating the ideal circumstances for the accused, for example facilitating the gathering of supporters in front of the courts prior to the proceedings, Repubblika honorary president Robert Aquilina said.

Both were absent for the court proceedings on both days, Tuesday and Wednesday, when two batches of accused people were arraigned.

Aquilina said that a mistake was made that could render Wednesday’s proceedings null in the case regarding Scicluna, Fearne and others. He said that whilst they haven’t been declared null yet, and there is no certainty that they will be declared null, there is a tangible possibility that this happens, which is of great concern.

Aquilina said the public officials, representing the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner, are doing their utmost in the difficult circumstances that Victoria Buttigieg and Angelo Gafa’ put them in.

Aquilina said that these mistakes could have been avoided and they were anticipated by Repubblika. He said they were done as the circumstances were created for them to happen.

Aquilina listed the difficult circumstances beginning with the great logistical problems in court for these proceedings. He said that accused are going to court in large groups, which is not right, and ideally should be in groups of 2 or 3 according to categories, for example, all the permanent secretaries together. Aquilina said that even if the accused were called to justice in large groups, an alternative place must be found, via a legal notice, and not in the courts in order to allow proceedings to happen adequately and in accordance to the norms of the law.

Aquilina said the arraignment of a large number of people at one go in a place unequipped for such large numbers is nothing more than an “act of sabotage to the proceedings”. He added that the large numbers of accused are leading to very long hearings, so much so, that the Chamber of Advocates directed lawyers that they should not work in court after 10pm, but, despite this, proceedings had to continue after 10pm.

Aquilina said that Gafa’ and Buttigieg, by their absence, are not supporting the proceedings. He went on to cite an analogous case of bribery of a former Chief Justice and another judge, in 2002, with the Police Commissioner and Attorney General presiding personally over the case, leading the proceedings. He explained that in this way, they were putting all their weight and that of their offices, fully, in the belief in the prosecutions.

Aquilina said that when Gafa’ and Buttigieg do not even step into court, by omission, they are undermining the prosecutions and they are leaving the public officials who are leading the prosecutions alone. He said that all this is happening after many long years of undermining and “dismantlement” of the resources of the AG and the Police and added that in the last 10 years the result has been a “brain drain”.

He said that all this goes to show that Gafa’ and Buttigieg are not fit to occupy their positions. Aquilina said that it was confirmed that the Police did not investigate the “fraudulent” contracts of the hospitals despite Daphne Caruana Galizia and journalists showed proof of this. He said that this is a “grave abuse” and a “basic abdication” from his role as police commissioner.

“The Attorney General and the Police Commissioner are not doing their duty but rather they are sabotaging the inquiry,” Aquilina said.

He said that they are treating the accused with kid gloves whilst other people who are accused with far less serious accusations are arrested and taken to court, yet the opposite is being done with Joseph Muscat. Furthermore, he said that they created the circumstances to inform them three weeks in advance before they are taken to court and allow them to have supporters in front of the courts to welcome them and create an atmosphere of intimidation.

In both the police force and AG office, there are public officials of great skill and in these circumstances the only service Buttigieg and Gafa can give to their country is to resign from their positions and allow the other public officials to do their national duty with integrity and honesty.

In reply to a question by The Malta Independent, Aquilina said that Repubblika always believed that Buttigieg should never have been made Attorney General as she never worked in the criminal sector, and that, furthermore, the fact that she was made Attorney General, is a sabotage to the institution in itself.