Repubblika president Robert Aquilina reacted similarly, stating that Muscat is “afraid of [getting sent to] prison”.

“He is scared because he knows exactly what he cooked up with his criminal friends and because he knows that we aren’t afraid of him.”

Earlier today, police raided Muscat’s Burmarrad home as part of a magisterial inquiry into Vitals Global Healthcare, the company which had been granted a controversial concession to develop and manage the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals which it eventually sold to Steward Healthcare after running into financial problems.

Muscat said the police had asked him for information about his relationship with Accutor AG, a Swiss company run by lawyer Wasay Bhatti which had received €3.6 million from Steward Healthcare during the period it had taken over the VGH concession.

Muscat received some €60,000 from Accutor AG in consultancy fees shortly after his 2019 resignation as Prime Minister in the wake of a political crisis sparked by Yorgen Fenech’s arrest for the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The former Prime Minister has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the money was for work that was fully documented, fully invoiced and taxed.

Muscat said today that he had prepared a file with all information regarding his relationship with Accutor AG, including projects he worked on and trips he had taken, back in November after Times of Malta revealed the payments.

He said he had asked magistrate Gabriella Vella to testify and present this information to her but that his request was turned down.
“For one reason or another, the path of theatrics was chosen. Maybe someone wanted to send a message that police entered my home,” Muscat said.

In a recorded message to supporters, Muscat said he was only half-surprised when police officers knocked on his door this morning, arguing that Azzopardi had hinted this would happen in a Facebook post on Sunday.

This was ostensibly a reference to a post by Azzopardi saying the public “will soon know” why Prime Minister Robert Abela is opposing a PN bill that calls for the establishment of an anti-corruption magistrate with the power to appoint their own staff. 

Muscat said that, following Azzopardi’s post, someone from within the PN had tipped him off that a raid was likely, but police sources have told Lovin Malta that the leak had actually come from within the police. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela reacted to the raid by warning the nation’s institutions to “be careful not to lose the trust” that the government has vested in them.

“I want to stress this point. We gave the institutions full trust and resources to perform their duty. Naturally, they must use these resources and trust solely for the strict administration of justice and no other aim. I won’t comment in detail because the magisterial inquiry is pending and I have trust in the institutions,” he said.

Abela also criticised investigators for seizing Muscat’s daughter’s phones as part of the raid.

“As a person who used to be a court expert in a number of inquiries, this is hard to understand, but the magistrate has the power to do this and naturally one must use this power solely in the limits of administering of justice.”

What do you make of today’s raid?