Edwin ‘il-Gojja’ Brincat – a close friend of Melvin Theuma – told jurors how the middleman confessed to him his involvement in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and faced questioning over his links to the former Police Commissioner, on the 16th day of the trial against Yorgen Fenech.

The court noted at the outset that Brincat has pending legal proceedings against him on an unrelated matter, and that he could decline to answer questions touching on them.

“He came to tell me that Vince Muscat was speaking to police. He told me he was involved in the murder. I was shocked. He started crying, going crazy. I kept on asking him: what did you do?” Brincat explained.

“Melvin told me that Yorgen told him il-Kohhu was speaking. He told me he was the middleman, who passed on the money and found the killers for Yorgen.”

“As far as I know, Melvin got the money from Yorgen. Melvin told me he got nothing from it.”

Brincat, a car dealer and horse-racing bookmaker, has known Theuma since Theuma was as young as 16 or 17. Theuma was one of around four people who helped Brincat at the bookmaker, and also helped him with the horses and, on one occasion, a car imported from Japan.

“Our relationship was good. We were friends in every sense of the word,” he said.

“Before the murder, he was normal, jokey. After, he would find me five times a day. I used to find him outside my door. He wasn’t behaving normally; he would show me articles and ask me about them,” Brincat said. Prompted with his earlier testimony, Brincat confirmed that Theuma had suicidal thoughts during this period.

Fenech and Theuma, he said, were also good friends, with Theuma telling him he sometimes travelled abroad with Fenech.

Asked by the judge why Theuma passed the money to the Degiorgios, Brincat said Theuma told him it was “to make a bomb”. “To carry out a killing,” the judge put to him. “That’s what it amounts to,” Brincat replied.

Brincat told jurors that Theuma spoke of €150,000 passed from Fenech to the Degiorgios – he believed after the murder – as well as weekly sums which Theuma said he paid out of his own pocket to a member of the Degiorgio family. Brincat said he believed these payments were made so they would not expose him.

“Melvin wanted to go to the police and get a pardon. He told me he had started recording Fenech. He knew whoever spoke first would get a pardon.”

Brincat also recounted that Theuma told him Fenech had said Muscat’s pardon request “had already gone through Cabinet” – something which, Brincat testified, made him realise that such information could not circulate through Cabinet without people knowing.

Brincat told jurors that he tried to dissuade Theuma from going to the police.

“I told him not to go. The people he was dealing with, like Yorgen, had contacts with big people. Everyone in Malta knows. I didn’t think police would believe him. I didn’t even believe that he had these tapes – and he’s just inventing things so I stop convincing him not to go,” he told jurors.

Brincat said he also advised Theuma to say Fenech’s name aloud while recording him, so that anyone listening to the tapes – including the police – would know who was speaking.

Brincat also corroborated the ‘phantom job’ story – and that Fenech had told Theuma to go to Castille to secure the job.

“Theuma used to get money from Yorgen. One time, he couldn’t get hold of Fenech and said he was going to go to Castille. I asked him whether he had spoken to Keith Schembri. He mentioned that Schembri was involved in some way, but also said he never spoke to Schembri himself. I thought he was crazy. He even told me he wanted to go speak to the Archbishop.”

“Melvin always told me that Fenech mentioned Schembri, so he assumed he was involved. He never spoke to Schembri about the murder or about money. I told him he shouldn’t go to Keith as he would get arrested straight away.”

Asked, at the close of the prosecution’s examination, who commissioned and paid for Theuma to act as the broker so that the murder would be carried out, Brincat answered: “It is Yorgen Fenech, from what Melvin told me.”

Edwin Brincat and Lawrence Cutajar: Meetings And Calls

A key highlight of Brincat’s testimony was his interactions with former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar – whom Brincat had saved in his phone as ‘MRC’, for Marsa Racing Club.

The number of times the two met was itself a point of contention. Brincat initially described two meetings before Theuma’s arrest, but under cross-examination conceded there may have been two more: one in which he delivered a car battery to Cutajar’s home, and another in which Cutajar checked whether Brincat had obtained the information he wanted.

The first meeting, Brincat said, was held at Cutajar’s home by him e to complain about a wrongly issued citation for a car he was not driving. At that meeting, Cutajar told Brincat words to the effect of: “If I help you with this, you’ll need to help me with something.”

Brincat testified that Cutajar told him he already knew Theuma was involved in the Caruana Galizia case, that Theuma had recordings, and asked Brincat to find out from Theuma where the tapes were kept, promising that not even Theuma would know Brincat had told them.

Brincat told him: “I knew nothing. I was holding Melvin back from the police. If I didn’t want him to have anything to do with the police, do you think I was going to pass the tapes on to the Commissioner?”

The prosecution played an intercept of a conversation between Brincat and Cutajar in court. It was taken on 14th June, the day before Brincat testified in the compilation of evidence in the case.

Details of the intercept will be revealed after Cutajar testifies.

The prosecution also presented a WhatsApp conversation between the pair. The first message, which included a photo of Brincat’s fine, was sent on Thursday 17th October 2019. The issue around the fine was settled on 23rd October.

On Saturday 9 November, 9th Novembermessaged Brincat to see if he was alone and available for a call in five minutes. This was followed by a series of further messages on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 Novembe13th Novemberng a potential 5 pm meeting. Brincat said he ignored those requests for calls and meetings, explaining he was trying to avoid Cutajar precisely because of the tapes.

On Thursday 14th November, Brincat was arrested as part of the money laundering investigation. Brincat insisted that they were not informed about the arrest in advance.

Yorgen Fenech’s defence team focused on Brincat’s relationship with Cutajar. The defence referred to a recording between Johann Cremona and Melvin Theuma in which the pair discussed Brincat paying €15,000 to secure Theuma’s pardon and telling Cutajar to go on a cruise.

Brincat denied that any such payment ever took place. He told the court that when he confronted Theuma about the claim, Theuma admitted it was a lie. “Melvin told me he just said it to show he had power and connections, even if it wasn’t the case,” he said.

“I knew there were these tapes. I never knew what was in them,” he said, adding that when Theuma played him a USB of the recordings at his home, the audio was largely inaudible, and he told Theuma the police would have the equipment to decipher it.

It was also put to Brincat that he had coached Theuma’s police statement before his arrest and helped him write a letter to Fenech and Schembri, both of which he denied, saying he had only told Theuma that police would play him the tapes and he should answer according to them.

Brincat also faced questions on Theuma’s pardon. He said he feared Theuma would never get one – and that Fenech and Schembri’s influence would see the murder pinned on Theuma instead. “They are powerful people. You don’t know what contacts they have,” he said.

However, Brincat regularly stressed that while Theuma had got it into his head that Fenech and Schembri acted as one, Theuma had always told him that he never dealt or spoke with Schembri about the murder itself – and only believed Schembri was the source of information Fenech passed on from the investigation.