Joseph Muscat’s Lawyer Suggests Travelling To Ireland To Speak To No-Show Forensic Expert
Joseph Muscat’s lawyer Vincent Galea suggested that he and other lawyers involved in the Vitals court case travel to Ireland to question a forensic expert who worked on the magisterial inquiry.
Jeremy Harbinson, whose firm Harbinson Forensics recently filed for liquidation in the UK, has informed Rachel Montebello’s court that he cannot travel to Malta “any time soon”.
The Attorney General has requested that he be allowed to testify virtually. In light of this, Galea said that if this request is approved, then he and the other lawyers involved in the case should be allowed to travel to Ireland to question Harbinson face to face.
This has happened in previous cases when a witness couldn’t travel to Malta and the court ruled that their testimony be heard online.
As the court-appointed expert who collated the reports together in Magistrate Gabriella Vella’s inquiry, Harbinson is an important witness in the Vitals case, where Muscat and others have been hit with criminal charges.
Lawyers would prefer being physically present, be it in Malta or Ireland, when the time comes to question him as such a setting is more conducive to putting a witness on the spot.