Malta’s deputy prime minister Chris Fearne has resigned and withdrawn his nomination to become a European commissioner after being charged with fraud.
"I am resigning not because I have any doubts about my innocence, but rather because it's the right thing to do,” Fearne told Prime Minister Robert Abela in a resignation letter published on Friday.
Fearne was the EU’s longest-serving health minister until he was given a different portfolio earlier this year in anticipation of him moving to Brussels as Malta’s nominee to the European Commission.
He served as deputy to both Prime Minister Abela and his predecessor, Joseph Muscat.
The criminal charges follow a four-year investigation by a magistrate into the Muscat government’s role in granting a 30-year, €4 billion ($4.3 billion) deal to run three hospitals to a company with no experience in the medical sector.
That deal was annulled by a civil court last year, which concluded that it was marked by fraud. Fearne was a junior minister when the deal was signed and assumed responsibility for it in late 2019.
"I hope the criminal case will be over quickly, so I can clear my name and be in a position to serve once again, should the country want that," he wrote in his resignation letter.
Abela asked Fearne to reconsider his resignation decision, telling his deputy he had “full faith in your integrity."
Apart from Fearne, prosecutors have also filed criminal charges against roughly two dozen other people they suspect played a criminal role in that deal. Defendants include Malta’s Central Bank governor, a former minister and former top government officials.
They also include Joseph Muscat, who served as prime minister between 2013 and 2020 and who stands accused of the most serious criminal charges, including bribery, corruption and money laundering.
The deal to privatize state hospitals has been scrutinized for years and was among the scandals that murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia reported on.
Muscat was forced out of office in January 2020 following nationwide protests that erupted after it emerged that he and his right-hand man were close friends with the businessman accused of masterminding that assassination, Yorgen Fenech.