Muscat’s media war: ‘I’ll be acquitted. Then I’ll battle those who forced Malta through this martyrdom’

Joseph Muscat fired the first shot across the bows with a television appearance to state his piece on charges of money laundering, organised crime and bribery filed against him this week: he promised a long drawn-out ‘war’ for his detractors.

“In two, three years’ time, when this charade starts coming apart, I’ll hold those responsible for this red herring, personally responsible for the €11 million spent on the magisterial inquiry,” Muscat said on F Living Channel, referring to Repubblika, the anti-corruption NGO which won the right to kickstart the four-year-long inquiry into the ministers of economy, finance and health.

The interview comes days after Muscat was charged, along with former ministers and associated suspects in the privatisation of three state hospitals, with money laundering and bribery amongst other charges.

And Muscat said he laughed at the accusations: “They’ve made me out to be some boss-of-bosses, Toto Riina… and I only laugh and sleep at night because I know the accusations are untrue.”

He said the charges had reinvigorated his political bones, throwing down the gauntlet by saying would either face guilt to “serve life and die in jail”, or see to the total discreditation of those who had peddled the accusations against him. “On acquittal, I will commence battle… against those putting this entire country through this martyrdom,” Muscat said.

He even derided the multiple asset freezes, which at around €30 million for each of the suspects, amounted to over €500 million. “Some professor thinks that the alleged bribe actually costs more than the entire value of the privatisation deal.”

Muscat doubled-down on his accusation that the inquiry was a vendetta against him and Labour.

“The inquiry started, first without my name being mentioned in the accusations. But then a police raid happens at my house, denied my request to be interrogated, denied the recusal of the magistrate in whom I have no faith due to the leaks from this inquiry, and the timing of the recommended charges to coincide with my potential electoral bid in the coming elections – a hatchet job.”

Muscat said it was unfair that EC nominee Chris Fearne and Central Bank governor Edward Scicluna had been brought into the charges – men he described as honest. “Even an honest civil servant like Alfred Camilleri has been dragged into these charges... it is clearly a vendetta... today anyone in the Civil Service can risk facing criminal charges for serving the government, without even being heard. It can stultify the government.”

Muscat’s defence today won the right to have immediate, partial access to the magisterial inquiry into the Vitals hospital deal, but rejected the disgraced former prime minister’s request to suspend the effects of the inquiring magistrate’s April 4 decree, refusing Muscat disclosure.

“How can it be fair in this country to be simply charged criminally of something that you have not been interrogated about, of which you have no knowledge of? It’s a situation that should send shivers down people’s spine – being investigated by a magistrate on the strength of somebody’s criminal report, hauled to court without any knowledge of the investigation, and finding that you must disprove the allegations against you.”

VITALS HOSPITALS INVESTIGATION

Who is accused in the first charges filed by the AG on the Vitals privatisation deal?

Muscat has denied the charges, calling them “completely made up”: as prime minister, he was responsible for the privatisation of the hospitals to an unknown group of businessmen, Vitals Global Healthcare, which has since been reversed by a court that declared the entire multi-million concession was fraudulent.

Previously, Muscat had used the comfort of the F Living interviews as well as those conducted by loyal acolyte Manuel Cuschieri on Smash TV, as the megaphones to his wider grassroots supporters. He had used this interview to say he had no trust in inquiring magistrate Gabriella Vella, saying the leaks from her inquiry  and her family’s social media commentary, undermined her judiciousness. His request for her recusal was unsuccessful.

No trust in magistrate, says Joseph Muscat over his ‘second Egrant’

In another Smash TV interview, Muscat supplied soundbites for his supporters and challenge adversaries by accusing detractors of playing a dirty game against him. “They want to see Muscat taken to court... I know that even if this happens, I know I have the people’s support, and even if I’m left alone to fight it, they would have wasted two years of my life for nothing to happen,” Muscat said, always confident there was nothing to incriminate him.

Muscat in Smash TV interview: dog-whistle politics in the war against ‘the freemasons’