Speaker asks police to provide Chris Fearne with protection after Steward-funded smear campaign

Speaker Anglu Farrugia has asked the Police Commissioner to provide Chris Fearne with the necessary protection in the wake of the smear campaign financed by Steward Health Care.

In a ruling that was greeted with applause, Farrugia also instructed the foreign ministry to raise the issue with the US embassy given that Steward is an American company.

Fearne had asked for parliament’s protection on Monday in the wake of a journalistic investigation that uncovered how Steward had contracted private investigators to dig up dirt on the former minister.

Chris Fearne asked for parliament's protection after media revelations showed that Steward funded a smear campaign against him

Steward ran three public hospitals in Malta granted on concession by the Maltese government. The contract was annulled last year by the court and following a magisterial inquiry, several individuals have been charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering.

Fearne is also facing lesser criminal charges. He has pleaded not guilty and the case against him continues on Wednesday.

However, an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Times of Malta,has revealed that Fearne was targeted by a Steward-funded smear campaign last year with the aim of creating fake stories that attributed corrupt behaviour to Fearne and his political aide Carmen Ciantar.

On Monday, Fearne told parliament that he feared that people who spent €6.5 million on a smear campaign against him “could go further”, and asked the Speaker to protect him and his family.

In a ruling on Tuesday afternoon, the Speaker asked the police to ensure that Fearne is provided with the necessary protection.

But Farrugia also went one step further and asked the foreign ministry to communicate with the US embassy, adding there may be a case of corporate crime that “needs to be given priority by US law enforcement”.

Farrugia said the dissemination of disinformation and fake news on MPs was tantamount to an attack on parliamentary democracy.

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