[WATCH] Grech on Steward’s Chris Fearne smear campaign: ‘That is what happens in a mafia state’

Steward’s engagement of private intelligence firms to target key opponents and critics, including Health Minister Chris Fearne, are the makings of a “mafia state,” Opposition leader Bernard Grech has said.

“We have a serious problem. Now we have evidence of what happens when you have a mafia state,” he told journalists outside parliament. “Now they are even at each other’s throats.”

Grech was reacting to reports which revealed Steward engaged private intelligence firms using concession money to spy on key opponents and critics.

He said the buck stops with the PM, and he should withdraw any objections made in a court case in which Nationalist leader Bernard Grech and MP Adrian Delia are asking the court to order the State Advocate to take the necessary legal action to recoup any money owed to the State after the Steward hospitals deal was cancelled.

“He defended and continues to defend Steward. Abela does not want to get back the €400 million stolen from the people, from the patients, and the vulnerable,” Grech said. “Now we also know that they not only stole public funds, but the funds were used against one of their own, against their deputy leader and the deputy prime minister.”

Grech also said that when stories started emerging on Fearne and Carmen Ciantar, the PN was “very cautious” in its reaction, saying they were not believable.

“That shows that we are acting on what we preach when we say we want mature politics,” he said.