Minister Justyne Caruana was hospitalised following an overdose of legal medication, well-informed sources have confirmed with Lovin Malta. 

Caruana was admitted to hospital yesterday, with a government statement saying that she was in a “stable condition” and was “recovering”.

Sources said that the legal medication, likely to be tranquillizers, led to heart complications. It is not known whether the overdose was intentional or not.

The minister has been under enormous pressure. Beyond issues within her personal life, she has been facing stiff criticism for handing football Daniel Boodganovic, believed to be a friend of hers, a questionable €5,000 a month job.

Meanwhile, Caruana’s recently estranged husband, former Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta, has been implicated as a major leak in the investigation of the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

Caruana had initially resigned following revelations of her husband’s links to the murder and its prime suspect. However, she was reinstated to the Cabinet and made Education Minister by the end of 2020. Prime Minister Robert Abela has backed the reappointment despite the controversy.

Valletta was named as the source of information on crucial details like Caruana Galizia’s whereabouts in the lead-up to her murder and the imminent arrests of the three hitmen after the assassination. 

Media reports and court sittings have revealed that have had an intimate relationship with main suspect Yorgen Fenech. He held dinners with Fenech and went abroad with him on at least two occasions. Meanwhile, there exists a video of Valletta “fooling around” in Fenech’s Rolls Royce.

It has also been revealed that Valletta features heavily in Theuma’s secret recordings, in particular with relation to leaks from the police investigation.

These details included the arrest of the three men charged with carrying out the murder, Muscat’s potential pardon, information that Theuma’s and Yorgen Fenech’s phones were wiretapped, and that Cardona’s number was discovered on the phone of one of Daphne’s killers.

Valletta, who is referred to as “Valletta l-oħxon” in Theuma’s secret recordings of Fenech, was leading the case into the assassination until he was forcibly removed by court order.

He was the one who set up unprecedented briefings with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Schembri on the case. The briefings started soon after the murder and continued up until a month before Theuma’s arrest.

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