Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1305625
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Cases 6042 Active 1825 Recoveries 4155 Deaths 62 Swabs 336,319 LATEST COVID-19 www.maltatoday.com.mt/covid19 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But his declaration chimed in with allegations advanced in court by Muscat's lawyer, Marc Sant, who accused lead inspector Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra of playing for time in the interests of "prominent third parties", in delaying a de- cision over Muscat's request for a presidential pardon. The Office of the Prime Min- ister yesterday released no comment on the allegation by the time of going to print. According to Vincent Mus- cat's court protest, filed back in September 2020, the only rea- son for the "exaggerated delay" were hidden interests to protect "prominent individuals" yet to be mentioned in connection with Caruana Galizia's murder. Muscat held five sessions with the police between January and February 2020, detailing his knowledge of various crimes predating the Caruana Galizia assassination. Muscat now wants the entire cabinet from 2017 to date, in- cluding former prime minis- ter Joseph Muscat and former chief of staff Keith Schembri, to testify about his presidential pardon request. Muscat says it was him who pointed the finger at middle- man Melvin Theuma back in April 2018, leading police to the middleman in the Caruana Galizia assassination. Muscat filed another for- mal request for a pardon when Theuma and alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech were arrested by the police in connecti on with the murder in November 2019. Muscat now wants the pend- ing trial over his alleged in- volvement in the 2010 failed HSBC heist to be postponed until a decision is taken on his pardon, ostensibly because the information he has to offer is also related to this case. Marc Sant told MaltaToday earlier this week that Prime Minister Robert Abela should consider recusing himself on any Cabinet discussion dealing with a pardon for Muscat, given that he previously represent- ed the Agius brothers – men- tioned in open court by Melvin Theuma as the suppliers of the bomb that killed Caruana Gali- zia – on financial disputes. "I hope he is aware that his is not the only conflict of inter- est among the current Cabinet members," Sant said, referring to his client's case dealing with his request for a pardon. "In our judicial acts we did not mention prominent persons, including some involved in politics, ca- priciously," Sant said, refusing to delve any further into his cli- ent's suggestions. A joint investigation by Malt- aToday and The Times showed the Agius brothers, who police believe are at the head of an or- ganised crime group, are part of the conspiracy that supplied the bomb used to assassinate Caruana Galizia in 2017. Muscat's former defence lawyer, Arthur Azzopardi, had told the Caruana Galizia public inquiry in 2020 that his client's information had been dismissed as hearsay evidence. But Azzopardi, who has repre- sented Robert Agius in fending off drug trafficking charges, dropped his brief for Muscat in November 2019. MaltaTo- day later established that Keith Arnaud was then given the impression by Azzopardi that Muscat would recant on his claim that Melvin Theuma was the middleman in the assas- sination; recordings between Theuma and an associate also confirm they had inside infor- mation that Muscat would be made to recant, although this never happened. MP: Minister 'not lawyer' implicated by triggerman Jason Azzopardi (left) and Vince Muscat (right) 100 new cases of COVID-19 were registered on Saturday. The number of active cases went down to 1,825 over last week's high, after 165 new re- coveries were registered. Total recoveries now stand at 4,155. A record 3,698 swabs were carried out in the last 24 hours, with the total number of swabs at 336,319. Deaths stand at 62, with an 82-year-old woman announced dead by the health ministry on Satur- day morning. Total cases stand at 6,042. An 80-year-old woman died while suffering from COV- ID-19, becoming the 62nd virus patient to die in Malta yesterday. The elderly woman was being cared for at Ma- ter Dei Hospital and died late on Friday evening, health authorities said. She was admitted to hospital on October 9 and tested positive for the virus four days later, on 13 October. 80-year-old is 62nd victim of COVID-19, record swabs and increased recoveries