Court ban on publication of surgeon’s identity

The Maltese courts have ordered a retroactive court ban on the name of an Italian surgeon, who is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, along with another Maltese surgeon whose name also cannot be published by court order.

The two surgeons are charged with the involuntary manslaughter of a patient during an operation they carried out together in September 2006. The patient died in December 2006. In those four months, seven medical interventions in total were carried out on the patient.

But the case will also be heard behind closed doors, a defence counsel for the surgeon told MaltaToday, after the Court of Magistrates accepted a request by the defence. The Prosecution did not object to the request.

The surgeon, previously named by MaltaToday, left Malta in 2007 and later moved on to the Essex Cardiothoracic Center in Basildon, in the United Kingdom.

A four-year inquiry was carried out on the case before the Attorney General's office decided that there were enough grounds for the charges to be brought against the two surgeons.

The case, due to be heard on 20 February, will take place behind closed doors.

The decree by Magistrate Claire Stafrace confirms that there was never a European Arrest Warrant for the Italian surgeon and that he never absconded from Malta.

Defence counsels Stephen Tonna Lowell, Joe Giglio and Melvyn Mifsud said the surgeon, who is denying the charges, left Malta in 2007 upon receiving a post in hospital in the UK.

Every court of criminal justice can prohibit the publication, before the termination of the proceedings, of the details in respect of the offence to which the proceedings refer, or of the party charged or accused. Persons who fail to comply with the order are found guilty of contempt and liable to prosecution before the court of magistrates.