Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1365202
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 APRIL 2021 NEWS OLD? OVER 40 YEARS OR 99180045 TO GET VACCINATED IN MALTA 99180044 TO GET VACCINATED IN GOZO APPLY FOR THE COVID19 VACCINE VACCIN.GOV.MT OR SEND YOUR ID CARD NUMBER BY SMS ON: CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Ahead of obtaining his plea bargain, Muscat told the inquiring magistrate of an episode during which one of the Degior- gio brothers name-dropped Cardona. "So one time we were in court, and we had heard on the news… they were always naming Chris Cardona on the news or the papers… so there we were, in the courts down below waiting to be taken up," Mus- cat told the magistrate and lead investiga- tor Keith Arnaud, in the presence of his lawyer Marc Sant. "Just before they took us into court… one of the brothers, either 'Fulu' or George said this word… it's a cuss word, can I say it? He said 'the fuck-up was that we did not record him' referring to Chris Cardona. "Something had happened at the time, something bad concerning him - for them to have told me that - and you know I had told you as much, Inspector," Muscat told Arnaud before the inquiring magistrate. Muscat's claim chimes in with his testi- mony in court in which he said Alfred De- giorgio 'il-Fulu' was a close friend of Car- dona and would meet him for information on Caruana Galizia. Muscat is now testify- ing in the compilation of evidence against brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, ac- cused of executing the assassination. Muscat said that when Degiorgio told him about the 2017 murder plot, he had informed him that he knew where Caru- ana Galizia lived. He also claimed Cardo- na's former law firm associate David Gatt, had been a link person in an original 2015 murder plot on Caruana Galizia. Cardona has previously denied any in- volvement in Caruana Galizia's murder, describing the testimony as "pure evil fic- tion". Muscat however has said in court he was not surprised when Alfred Degiorgio sought information on Caruana Galizia from Chris Cardona. "Let us not forget that in 2014 or 2015, when I took George Degiorgio to Portomaso to speak to Chris Cardona… so, I wouldn't be surprised," he said in court. The Labour Cabinet has rejected par- don requests made by brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, as well as a new request by Vince Muscat, last week. Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, requested a second pardon to reveal inside infor- mation on another murder and two failed hold-ups. Muscat had already been given a pardon in February to tell all about the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, while obtaining a plea bargain to confess to the Caruana Galizia murder. The Degiorgio brothers subsequently asked for a pardon, saying they could give direct information on the involvement of a former minister in the Caruana Galizia murder and the HSBC hold-up 11 years ago; and the involvement of a sitting min- ister in the same hold-up. Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has pointed his finger at OPM Minister Car- melo Abela as the sitting minister. Abe- la denied the claim and filed urgent libel proceedings against Azzopardi. 'Degiorgios said: "We should have recorded Cardona"' Vincent Muscat COVID-19 Active cases down to 476, no deaths over Friday 20 new cases of COVID-19 have been registered in the past 24 hours as local infection numbers continue to decline. In its daily briefing, the health ministry said 57 recov- eries were registered in the same period. No COVID-re- lated deaths were recorded between Friday and Saturday noon. Active cases now number 476. A total number of 856,781 swab tests have been carried out since the start of the pan- demic. 412 local patients have died of the disease. 307,636 doses of the vac- cine have been administered to date, of which 98,677 were second doses. PN pledges free IVF medication on national register MEDICINES necessary for in-vitro fertilization treatment should be offered to couples for free, removing a financial bar- rier to couples seeking treat- ment, the Nationalist Party said yesterday. The PN claimed between €4,000 to €6,000 worth of med- icines are required for each IVF cycle and that few fam- ilies could afford spending €15,000 on medicines for three IVF cycles. "These individuals, couples and families will have already gone through a lot of pain and anxiety before consid- ering IVF," the PN said. "The least we could do as a society is remove the financial burden that means many cannot even consider it a possibility." IVF was introduced to Malta's public health service in Octo- ber 2013 after the PN govern- ment banned the practice in 2012. While medical services related to fertility treatment are free of charge, the stimu- lation medicines required be- forehand are not. While earlier this week, PN leader Bernard Grech raised concerns about IVF expenses, Health Minister Chris Fearne replied on Friday, saying Grech should now support forthcom- ing amendments to the IVF law. On Friday's edition of Pjazza on ONE TV, Fearne stated that he would be making efforts to change local IVF laws to intro- duce pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, a medical test used to screen embryos for genetic defects before implantation. "I expect Bernard Grech to back this bill and not put spokes in the wheels," Fearne said.