Police commissioner: ‘We had no visibility of Vitals magisterial inquiry’

Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà has insisted in court that the police were kept in the dark throughout the magisterial inquiry into the hospitals concession to Vitals Global Healthcare. 

Gafà took the witness stand before Mr. Justice GIovanni Grixti on Tuesday, as the human rights case filed by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat continued. 

The disgraced former prime minister, who stands accused of corruption in the Vitals hospitals PPP, had unsuccessfully sought to have the inquiring magistrate Gabriella Vella replaced, and is now claiming to have suffered a breach of his right to a fair trial. 

Muscat’s lawyer Charlon Gouder asked Gafà about a Facebook post by Repubblika lawyer Jason Azzopardi – referring to a search at Muscat’s house – and whether the post had been investigated, as it implied that the information had been leaked to Azzopardi. 

Gafà replied that he knew of no such investigation. 

Superintendent James Grech also testified on Tuesday, explaining how the search at Muscat’s residence had been planned for Monday, 17 January 2022, but the day before it was due to happen, Repubblika’s lawyer, Jason Azzopardi, had published a post on Facebook that seemed to indicate foreknowledge on his part. “The post was ambiguous, it wasn’t clear, but he had said something to the effect that the reason behind [the post] would become clearer soon.” 

The timing of the post led the police to suspect that he was referring to the inquiry-related raid. 

The inquiring magistrate spoken to Grech after court expert Keith Cutajar informed her that he was being “bombarded” with phone calls from Azzopardi.  

A conference call was held with the magistrate and the Commissioner of Police. “The magistrate was very frustrated, as were we. Then we had to find another date for the plan.” 

A meeting aimed at containing the damage caused to the inquiry by the leak, was held on that Sunday afternoon. 

Referring to the search of Joseph Muscat’s private residence in 2023, commissioner Gafà was unable to state to whom the order for the search was made. “I don’t know but there was a plan drawn up.” the Commissioner replied when asked about it. “Every time the magistrate asked us to carry out searches, we would ask that the request be made in the form of an application.” 

Simultaneous searches necessarily required coordination between several officers, he said in reply to another question, as Muscat’s lawyer attempted to whittle down the number of possible culprits behind the leak, by asking about who would have known about the search in advance. 

Lawyer Jason Azzopardi (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

Gafà said Muscat’s case was one of many cases discussed in a monthly briefing at the FCID, initially held with former deputy commissioner Alexandra Mamo, and after she left the police force, with Superintendents James Grech and Sandro Camilleri. More recently, Deputy Commissioner Sandro Gatt and Assistant Commissioner Fabian Fleri would attend the meetings. 

Gafà also told Muscat’s other lawyer, Vince Galea, that he had discussed the possible leak of information regarding the searches that were due to happen at Muscat’s house, with Mamo, Grech, inspector Anthony Xerri, court expert Keith Cutajar and the inquiring magistrate. He insisted that he did not remember what was said in that meeting other than that the date of the search had to be pushed back. “We were all concerned, your honour,” Gafà told the judge. “After this alleged post, we made other arrangements…” 

 No visibility of magisterial inquiry 

Gafà said his office would constantly ask for information because it had no visibility over the Gabriella Vella inquiry. “Neither what the experts were saying, nor who was testifying.” 

Gafà said that on 8 May, 2023, he requested from the magistrate a list of the experts she had nominated in the inquiry and asked that they communicate with the police. He said it appeared that the magistrate had upheld the application the next day, but that neither Inspector Borg nor Superintendent Grech had received word. 

When asked why the police hadn’t investigated the Vitals case in parallell to the Vella magisterial inquiry, Gafà referred to the court application filed by the NGO Repubblika on 11 May 2023, in which it asked the inquiring magistrate to proceed with the arrests of certain individuals. He repeated that the police had subsequently sent an application to the magistrate, seeking direction on this matter, but said that it was not decreed. “I must stress that if these are the alleged leaks we are talking about, we were constantly asking the inquiring magistrate for guidance because we had no visibility of the inquiry,” the Commissioner of Police repeated. 

Gafà said that without the experts’ reports, “which were not received by the magistrate for some time, the police could not investigate the hospitals deal, and so needed the direction of the magistrate.” 

He said that the police did not have the opportunity to see the full picture put together by the financial crime and cybercrime experts appointed by the magistrate, until the inquiry was concluded. 

Replying to a question about the leaks, Superintendent Grech told State Advocate lawyer Isaac Zammit that the police had not communicated with Azzopardi, but had spoken directly to the magistrate. 

“So is it being implied that it was not Cutajar who leaked the information,” Zammit suggested. Grech did not agree with that statement. “It could have been anyone.”  

Other people had been involved in the search of Muscat’s residence besides the court expert in question, not least a number of foreign experts, Grech continued. At 10am, some three hours after the search began, a journalist had also turned up, he said. 

But the court experts had not directly participated in the search. “Until I left the scene, the foreign expert had been explaining to Muscat what was being sought.” Muscat had handed over the information requested, he said, but explained that the police could not simply take him at his word and still had to conduct their search. 

Grech later left Muscat’s house to assist with another, related search, leaving Inspector Xerri behind. 

After Grech stepped off the witness stand, Galea informed the court that he intends to call Jason Azzopardi to the witness stand at the next sitting, which will take place in September.