The prosecution closed its examination of Melvin Theuma on Tuesday afternoon, ending several days in the witness box with a series of chat exchanges in which the self-confessed middleman and Yorgen Fenech discussed arrests and how to throw investigators off their trail.

Fenech’s defence team will begin its cross-examination when the trial resumes on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Godwin Cini took Theuma through screenshots of conversations with a contact saved as “Yurgin”, which Theuma confirmed were his exchanges with Fenech. 

In one, sent around carnival, Theuma told Fenech he had seen a man pass his house and did not like it. Theuma testified that he suspected the man was a CID officer and that he followed him the next day, watching him walk around the block and into a house. 

Fenech replied that he had spoken to his “mate” that morning. Theuma told the court that the mate was Keith Schembri, then the prime minister’s chief of staff.

In another exchange, Fenech invited Theuma to bring his son over to play with Fenech’s son while the two men spoke properly. Theuma said the two had argued by phone earlier that day, after he learned that Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, was talking to the police. He recalled telling Fenech: “What have you gotten me into?” Cini noted to the jury that Fenech had enabled disappearing messages with a five-minute timer.

In court, Theuma said Fenech was coaching him on how to mislead Cremona. In one text, Fenech told Theuma to call Johann Cremona, say he could not take the betrayal, leave it for an hour, then walk it back by explaining that his uncle had already had a deal. “Dress it up,” Fenech wrote, according to the transcript read in court, “and if you’re going to do it, prepare properly,” Theuma replied. 

A similar exchange, Theuma said, concerned what he should say to Alfred Degiorgio on a line he knew was being tapped. 

“It would be better if they stopped listening. It would be a very good sign,” Theuma says.

“Say something like this. It’s OK with the boss. It wasn’t a betrayal. His uncle had an obligation, and they couldn’t add another two taxis at the Hilton,” Fenech replies.

In court, Theuma says that Fenech instructed him over the phone to tell Degiorgio that he knew the line was being tapped. 

“It shouldn’t sound like we’re arguing,” Fenech writes. “ So we’ll put them off listening. And throw it aside.”

In court, Theuma says Fenech instructed him on how to get the Malta Security Services off track and stop them from intercepting their calls. 

In one of the longer exchanges, the two men traded complaints about their nerves before turning to the risk from the Degiorgio brothers. Theuma warned that George Degiorgio wanted to go to the magistrate. Fenech answered that they were playing the game, and advised Theuma to tell the police he did not know what they were talking about. Theuma then told Fenech that he and Schembri should make sure that any evidence the Degiorgios tried to produce in prison was destroyed immediately. Fenech, according to the message, replied that everyone says their own thing and nobody has anything.

In another, Fenech told Theuma that he was the only person who worried him, that he would always keep him close, and that Theuma’s son was now his son. Theuma told the court that Fenech was worried he would crack and go to the police.

Jurors were also shown an exchange in which Theuma asked how to contact Alfred Degiorgio, and Fenech said he would buy a phone with a foreign SIM card and send word of the number to prison.

In the same conversation, Theuma forwarded Fenech a news article reporting Labour 80,000 votes ahead, and said the government would hold another inquiry into the murder so that the truth would be known once he was dead and buried. Theuma testified that this was at a point when he was convinced Fenech and Schembri were plotting to kill him.

The final messages put to the witness concerned the approach to the November 2017 arrests. Fenech told Theuma that he could not understand why he had doubted him, that they would sort everything out, and that “it will happen on Saturday”. 

Theuma asked whether he could keep “the women” out of it. Fenech said he was aware of it and was working on it, and advised Theuma to clear everything up. Theuma told the court that Fenech had advised him to remove anything connected to his black market lottery operation, along with his recordings about the murder.

Recordings with Johann Cremona and Calls with Yorgen Fenech

The morning session focused on a series of recordings between Melvin Theuma and Johann Cremona, the business partner of Yorgen Fenech. 

iN the recordings, Theuma and Cremona discuss Fenech having engaged the Degiorgios and then being blackmailed for money. Theuma also says that Fenech used to say that Daphne Caruana Galizia was “better dead than alive”.

Theuma reiterated, under questioning, that he had never recorded Keith Schembri, stressing that he had met him only twice: once at Fenech’s ranch in Zebbug and once at Castille, when he was given the phantom government job.

He said that he assumed Fenech and Schembri were working together but told the court that Schembri never gave him money and that the order to carry out the assassination was given to him by Fenech. He added that when he was brought before the magisterial inquiry, he was told that he should only give the truth about what he knew and saw.

In recordings, Theuma presses Cremona as to whether Schembri had sent Kenneth Camilleri – and whether he would be able to meet face to face. Theuma told the court that this was an attempt to record Camilleri. 

In the same recording, Cremona describes passing a message via Kenneth so it reaches Yorgen Fenech: “the medicine for everything is money”. Under questioning, Theuma confirmed it was related to Vince ‘Il-Kohhu’ Muscat.

“Il-Koħħu stopped talking,” Theuma told Cremona, adding that their “power was money”, in reference to the payments to the hitmen.

In one exchange, Cremona tells Theuma to “delete the recording,” confirming earlier testimony that Fenech’s business associate was trying to have the tapes destroyed. 

At one point, Theuma mentions “the Commissioner”, a reference to then-Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar. Theuma told the court that he was bluffing and had never spoken to him. On the other hand, he said that Cutajar was trying to get information from him, as confirmed by Edwin Brincat’s testimony.  Theuma said he invented information to test whether Cremona was lying to him; adding that actually 

 Two further calls were played, in which Theuma was asked only to identify the voices. They were both with Fenech.

 In one, he and Fenech discuss Theuma approaching Keith Schembri’s secretary to resolve a problem he had run into with Enemalta. In another, the two mention Edwin Brincat, known as il-Ġojja. A third call, between Theuma and Brincat, was played with a child audible in the background.

Fenech denies the charges against him.