Economy Minister Chris Cardona’s law partner is defence counsel in Godwin Sant corruption trial

Godwin Sant

The case against Malta Resources Authority director Godwin Sant, for corruption in his conduct as a public officer, continued today in the Court of Justice.

I read the newspaper reports and learned that his defence counsel is Mark Vassallo. It is a name that will ring no bells with most of you, but it is significant all the same.

Vassallo shared a law practice with Chris Cardona right up until the day that Cardona became Minister for the Economy. He is also legal counsel to the public service broadcaster and a long-time ‘silent’ shareholder in the television production house Where’s Everybody. By ‘silent’ I mean that this salient fact was kept very quiet, so when the Labour media ranted and raved about Where’s Everybody being an instrument for the Nationalist Party, and Lou Bondi and Joe Azzopardi being PN stooges, nobody knew that their business partner and co-shareholder shared an office and a law practice with Labour MP Chris Cardona.

I think Godwin Sant’s choice of lawyer is significant. I don’t know how, why, or in what way it is significant, but I think that it is.

In any case, I consider it ridiculous and inappropriate that a man being prosecuted for corruption in the conduct of government business should be defended by the Economy Minister’s law partner.