The focus of this article is not how the Gabriella Vella Magisterial Inquiry impacted Malta’s political landscape. What we are focusing on today is how what is now becoming a charade has literally turned down the lives of a large number of people upside down, including some of the most serious of individuals to have ever worked within the civil service.

In life we are all accountable, and that is how it should be. This is one of the key democratic principles on which modern society is built. As much as a civil servant is accountable for his actions or lack thereof, so are those that conduct inquiries, in this case, even at exorbitant fees.

The key expert whose work has led to the arraignment of multiple people has intentionally gone missing and is refusing to testify. The Court, as is expected, is now using all legal avenues to trace him and have him own to his responsibilities.
The optics of what is occurring are disastrous and leave very little to the imagination of what will happen next. Mr JeremyHarbinson will most likely persist in this unprecedented unimaginable behaviour and the case will falter.

This may be good news enough for most, but certainly this isn’t justice. The sleepless nights, the medical issues, the families that were sent to hell and back, the reputations that were ruined, the lives that could no longer be enjoyed in serenity, how are these going to be recovered? Who will do justice with these people and their loved ones? Or even more, will it ever be possible for these individuals to find peace?

Now, in further developments that unfolded on Monday, Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà has been given one month to update the Court on the progress of investigations to locate the main expert in the hospitals inquiry, that is Mr Harbinson.
This emerged during another court sitting following a decision by Magistrate Lara Lanfranco, during proceedings that continued against a number of individuals in connection with the hospitals concession.

Defence lawyers Vince Galea and Franco Debono argued that the prolonged nature of the proceedings, caused by Harbinson’s continued failure to testify and the fact that he now still has to be located, together with the Prosecution’s refusal to close the compilation of evidence, is leading to a breach of the accused’s right to a fair hearing.

How’s that for justice?

For his report in the hospitals inquiry, commissioned by Magistrate Vella, Mr Harbinson was paid no less than €11 million.

The next court hearing is scheduled for 26 February.