The Court of Magistrates has ruled there is sufficient prima facie evidence for former Vitals Global Healthcare and Steward Healthcare Malta CEO Armin Ernst to stand trial on criminal charges linked to the controversial concession of three public hospitals.
In a decree delivered by Magistrate Lara Lanfranco, the court concluded that the prosecution had presented enough evidence at this preliminary stage for Ernst to be placed under a bill of indictment before the Criminal Court.
Ernst faces a number of charges, including fraud, bribery, misappropriation and money laundering, in connection with the concession granted in 2015 for the management of St Luke's Hospital, Karin Grech Hospital and Gozo General Hospital. The concession was originally awarded to Vitals Global Healthcare before being transferred to Steward Healthcare in 2018.
The court's role at this stage was limited to determining whether the evidence presented by the prosecution reached the legal threshold required for the case to proceed to trial. The court emphasised that they were not required to determine Ernst's guilt, but only to establish whether sufficient evidence exists for the charges to be examined by the Criminal Court.
Ernst, who has pleaded not guilty, had previously been arrested in the United States in connection with the same investigation. Maltese authorities are pursuing criminal proceedings following a magisterial inquiry into the hospital's concession deal.
During the proceedings, the defence argued part of the prosecution's case relied on the Harbinson Forensics report, which they described as an exercise in gathering information rather than admissible evidence, since its authors had not been subjected to cross-examination.
However, the court rejected this argument, noting that the report forms part of the process-verbal of the magisterial inquiry and must therefore be considered as evidence at the prima facie stage.
The prosecution in the criminal proceedings is being led by lawyer Francesco Refalo, while Ernst is being represented by lawyers José Herrera and Matthew Xuereb.
Magistrate Lara Lanfranco presided over the sitting.