Police who searched Keith Schembri’s Castille office as part of the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder left with a single sheet of paper, jurors in Yorgen Fenech’s trial were told –  and that the three-hour search of his home yielded nothing.

Inspector Kurt Zahra continued his testimony, building on Yorgen Fenech’s police statement shown to jurors the previous day.

He revealed that Keith Schembri was never arrested in connection with the murder or considered a suspect, but was prompted by the letter that was allegedly passed on to Fenech via their shared doctor, Adrian Vella, along with leaking information to Yorgen Fenech.

He confirmed the searches that took place at Schembri’s home and office, revealing that police seized a single sheet of paper from Schembri’s office – an article by Daphne Caruana Galizia naming Pierre Darmanin’s alleged involvement in oil smuggling. Under cross-examination, Zahra said the file with her articles was not of interest to the homicide investigation. 

He faced further questioning from the defence on his role in the arrest and search of Keith Schembri’s home. He said they were there for three hours.

“We were looking for anything that could be related to the case. His mobile, his laptop, papers with mobile numbers, that sort of thing,” Zahra said, but conceded that they seized nothing from the property.

He also confirmed that Schembri’s office was searched seven days later. 

Zahra also presented evidence regarding Fenech’s interactions with Castille, the office of the Prime Minister. Call data confirmed that in 2019, Fenech visited Castille six times. Fenech told investigators he visited three times a week.

The defence began the cross-examination aggressively, accusing Zahra of lying, claiming that Vince Muscat said the murder would not have been possible with Melvin Theuma. However, on examination, the judge ruled that it was not the case, and asked the defence to apologise.

Zahra maintained that he was never present for the meetings in Castille and was only aware that Schembri’s name was mentioned in intercepts and not the recordings.

Zahra walked jurors through the evening before Yorgen Fenech’s arrest and the businessman’s alleged attempt to escape the island.

He referred to chats between Yorgen and his uncle, Ray Fenech, over “developments”.   Ray told Fenech to “go to a safe place” and “book a flight to Paris”. Ray asked Yorgen to “speak to K” about leaving through the airport; Yorgen says it’s safer to escape by boat

Zahra confirmed that he was outside the murder investigation for roughly two years, from Silvio Valletta’s departure in June 2018 until Theuma’s arrest in November 2019.

He said he had never seen a Europol report dated 14 May 2018 which drew up a list of possible instigators from Caruana Galizia’s blog.

The Hitmen’s Inconsistencies

Zahra corroborated that the hitmen did not speak to police upon their arrest. It changed in April 2018 when Vince Muscat approached investigators. He also confirmed that the Degiorgios told Muscat to stop.

The Degiorgios, he said, requested a pardon for every crime they committed right up until 2017, after they  pleaded guilty to their role in the murder,

He revealed that George Degiorgio confirmed they received € 150,000 from Melvin Theuma and that he never met Yorgen Fenech. However, he spoke more about a 2015 plan to murder Daphne, which he said involved David Gatt, Chris Cardona, Keith Schembri and Lawrnece Cutajar and where a €50,000 deposit was paid.

Degiorgio refused to provide details on the 2017 murder. Muscat, Zahra said, told police that the 2015 plan had nothing to do with 2017. He added that the Degiorgio brothers provided conflicting accounts, including mentioning people who were already dead at the time.

Zahra revealed that investigations into the 2015 plot are ongoing and that Cardona has been interrogated over the matter.

Social Media Posts

The session kicked off with the defence raising with the court concerns over social media posts shared by Jason Azzopardi, a parte civile lawyer. The post, Azzopardi explained, was a reshare of a post by Matthew Caruana Galizia, Daphne’s son, claiming that the defence was running its own social media campaign.

The judge warned that he could not comment on proceedings. She noted that the court could not censor journalistic reports of what was said in open court, but stressed the right to be presumed innocent. 

Defence lawyer Charles Mercieca raised further concerns that jurors’ court-provided digital tablets could read news reports. It was later clarified that websites are blocked, but certain headlines could still be read. The devices were confiscated pending review.