Former Health Minister Chris Fearne will request for the police to investigate claims that Steward Health Care funded a “heinous frame-up”.
“The evidence revealed amounts to irrefutable proof that as Malta’s Health Minister, I always stood my ministerial ground in the national interest. Around €6,500,000 were spent to fabricate a story with a single malign purpose: to politically eliminate me. This is how much filthy money was paid to try to get Chris Fearne out of the way,” Fearne wrote on Facebook.
“This malicious plan was done in two steps. First, they tried to find dirt, any dirt, to throw at me. When they failed because there wasn’t any, they just fabricated it. Quite simply, this was a pitch-dark six million euro frame-up to try to block me from continuing to do my duty towards our patients, my ministry and my country.”
Fearne stated that when the allegations were first published last year, he immediately went to the Police Commissioner, asking for an investigation. It allegedly didn’t take him long to conclude that the “story was all fake”.
“Today I shall be going to the Police Commissioner once again, this time to ask him to act against who financed and who committed this heinous frame-up. Meanwhile, I continue to defend and confirm my integrity in the Courts of Law.”
Fearne posted this in light of leaked documents and emails obtained by the OCCRP and given to the Times of Malta and the Boston Globe which indicate a smear campaign of “fake” corruption claims funded by Steward.
This was part of a broader €6.5 million scheme authorised by Steward to target their perceived opponents both in Malta and abroad with Fearne being one of the key targets in the Malta operation.
The secret operation included using bank records, accessing sensitive phone data, and planting media stories about corruption among local officials.
Fearne stated that this was carried out during a time when he was “rigorously insisting” that Steward fulfill its contractual obligations.
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