Keith Schembri ‘Indicated’ Which Devices To Seize, Scene Of Crime Officers Testify

Two scene-of-crime officers who oversaw the operation at Keith Schembri’s home revealed that the then-OPM chief of staff had “indicated” which devices they should seize from his residence, leaving two mobile devices behind.

Michelle Camilleri and Mario Azzopardi described the November 2019 operation. They revealed that Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud had told them to “only seize the devices indicated by Schembri”.

It should be noted that the two police officers were relying on what they were told by police sergeant Alex Taliana, who spoke to Arnaud during the search.

“My colleague called Assistant Commissioner Arnaud. He said we had to collect every electronic device flagged by Keith Schembri,” Camilleri said.

This, and several other irregularities, brought the attention of Yorgen Fenech’s defence team. This included: officers were not told the purpose in advance, an unmarked vehicle was used, and Schembri’s lawyers were present.

Azzopardi also confirmed that he amended his report after a magistrate pointed out that no CID search had in fact taken place.

Azzopardi explained how on 26th November, at roughly 1:30 pm, they were instructed by Arnaud to search Schembri’s home in Mellieha.

At the property were Schembri, his wife and two lawyers, Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo, his mother, father, his eldest daughter and Neville Gafa.

The officers photographed the scene before seizing a Dell laptop from the living room, two MacBook laptops belonging to Schembri’s daughters, an Asus tablet and an iPad.

In those photographs, two mobile phones were spotted.

“We were only meant to take what Keith told us to take, and nothing else,” Azzopardi said.

“No. We never conduct searches that way,” he added.

Schembri was arrested and driven to the police headquarters in an unmarked van. His lawyers accompanied him.