Former finance minister Edward Scicluna is featuring in two magisterial inquiries into the controversial hospitals' privatisation deal and had personally requested a hearing before the magistrate, he testified in court. Scicluna was facing final cross-examination in a libel suit he had filed against former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil over a tweet posted in July 2019, at a time when the former minister was vying for nomination to the European Commission. The tweet followed a magistrate’s decision upholding a 150-page application by civil society group Repubblika requesting a probe against former ministers Scicluna, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Cardona over suspected criminal complicity in the transfer of St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals to VGH. Days after the incident, it was announced that Malta’s new European Commissioner was former Equality and European Affairs Minister Helena Dalli. “It caused great harm,” stressed Scicluna when winding up his testimony earlier this week. The tweet, posted on July 19, had coincided with a brief visit to Malta by outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker who “was coming to receive some medal from the government,”...