Muscat wages media war against criminal charges in F Living interview

The former Labour leader and prime minister Joseph Muscat will be interviewed by the owner of F Living Channel, Karl Bonaci, at 3pm on Thursday.

The interview comes days after Muscat was charged, along with former ministers and associated suspects in the privatisation of three state hospitals, with money laundering and bribery amongst other charges.

Muscat has denied the charges, calling them “completely made up”: as prime minister, he was responsible for the privatisation of the hospitals to an unknown group of businessmen, Vitals Global Healthcare, which has since been reversed by a court that declared the entire multi-million concession was fraudulent.

Who is accused in the first charges filed by the AG on the Vitals privatisation deal?

He will now appear on F Living where he is expected to mount a media campaign intended at bolstering supporters’ rebuttal of public outrage at the charges. The bullish former politician, now a business consultant who also chairs the Malta Premier League association, said he will fight the charges: “I will relish disproving the charges, and show how they are based on not only fantasies, but also lies.”

Previously, Muscat had used the comfort of the F Living interviews as well as those conducted by loyal acolyte Manuel Cuschieri on Smash TV, as the megaphones to his wider grassroots supporters.

Previously, he told Cuschieri on Smash TV that he had no trust in inquiring magistrate Gabriella Vella, saying the leaks from her inquiry  and her family’s social media commentary, undermined her judiciousness. His request for her recusal was unsuccessful.

No trust in magistrate, says Joseph Muscat over his ‘second Egrant’

In another Smash TV interview, Muscat supplied soundbites for his supporters and challenge adversaries by accusing detractors of playing a dirty game against him. “They want to see Muscat taken to court... I know that even if this happens, I know I have the people’s support, and even if I’m left alone to fight it, they would have wasted two years of my life for nothing to happen,” Muscat said, always confident there was nothing to incriminate him.

Muscat in Smash TV interview: dog-whistle politics in the war against ‘the freemasons’