Yorgen Fenech repeatedly told jurors that he “wasn’t comprehensive” when police interviewed him in November 2019, as the prosecution pressed him on discrepancies between his statement to investigators and his court testimony. 

“I’m here to tell the truth, as painful as it might be,” Fenech said. “I was reckless in the interview,” Cini noted, adding that he gave the statement with his lawyers present, more than eight days after his arrest.

The key differences focused on Keith Schembri’s alleged claims to Fenech regarding a plot to murder Daphne, first in 2014 and then regarding the payment of a deposit in 2016, both of which were absent from his testimony in court; and details on the alleged dinner at the end of 2017 where Schembri, Theuma and Fenech discussed the murder plot.

“According to Keith, there was a plan (in 2014)”, Fenech said in court. “I never took it seriously.”

“I told him he was crazy,” Fenech said, adding that this was part of the 2015 plan alleged by the Degiorgio brothers and Vince Muscat.

In the statement, Fenech said Schembri had told him several times that he wanted to get rid of Caruana Galizia. “He had been asking me since 2014!” he told police. “The theatrics began in 2014,” he said in court. He could not say why he had not raised it in his testimony.

The motive he described also shifted. “Schembri’s obsession was with personal attacks,” Fenech said in court. In his statement, he had told police that Schembri’s animosity also stemmed from her writing about the government.

“Why didn’t you bring it up in your testimony?” Cini asked. “My lawyers didn’t ask.”

“”[The meal] was on a Thursday. I remember that,” Fenech said in court about the dinner at the ranch in 2016. He had described the meal as casual, saying that he, Schembri, relatives and Theuma discussed Caruana Galizia’s writing on Schembri’s cancer diagnosis.

“You never said you were the three of you at a table discussing it,” Cini said, listing what else was missing from the statement: the lamb, the invitation to Theuma, the PlayStation games, and Theuma urging Schembri to get rid of Caruana Galizia.

The account of what Theuma said, and when, also moved. In his testimony, Fenech said Theuma offered at the dinner that he could get rid of Caruana Galizia. In his statement, he said Theuma barely spoke at the dinner and raised it afterwards, in the car.

“I didn’t have faith in the police,” Fenech said when asked about the changes from statement to testimony. “Maybe I wasn’t comprehensive.”

“Was your police statement invented – and you’re just building on that now?” Cini asked. “No,” Fenech replied.

“Not comprehensive when I have a statement the size of a bible here,” Cini replied. “I was scared they were going to entrap me,” Fenech said

“The gist is, Keith Schembri brought Theuma on board for the murder,” Fenech said. “You didn’t say that before,” Cini said. “Did you remember this this evening?”

There were further discrepancies in the plan to murder Daphne – namely, on Theuma engaging the hitmen and the fee paid for the murder. Fenech maintained that he never asked Theuma whom he was speaking to, or about the plan or any other detail. “I didn’t have interest,” he said. “I never asked him.”

“You expect us to believe that you three were around the table, Melvin Theuma spoke to a clique who threatened him because of a conversation at your ranch, and you didn’t tell him what the hell you were doing?” Cini asked. “I did,” Fenech replied. “But you told him that you would speak to him about it after he told you about the plan.”

“You didn’t chuck him out as a taxi driver at the Hilton?” Cini asked. “It was too late,” Fenech replied. “You didn’t do it in October 2016?” “I was trying to defuse the situation,” Fenech said. “And I managed. In fact, his plan began again in April.”

Fenech told police that Theuma picked him up on the way back from the airport and mentioned €120,000. In court he maintained: “I discovered it was €150,000 after the murder.”

Cini put it to him that key figures, including the hitmen Vince Muscat and George Degiorgio corroborate Theuma’s timeline and payments,

“Melvin saw an opportunity like the criminal he is,” Fenech said. “You had the option to report him to the police?” Cini asked. “No, I didn’t take the option.”

“You chose the worst choice – can we agree?”

“I feel like I stopped him, and that’s what I can tell you. If it was the best thing to do, I don’t know. But it did stop him.”

Cini told him his “effort” had been focused on helping the person evade the police. “I never paid for the murder of Daphne or anyone else,” Fenech replied.

Fenech was questioned about the several occasions on which he told police he would answer at the “opportune moment”, including when he was asked about the fee paid for the murder.

“I wasn’t comfortable. The second I mentioned Keith Schembri, the atmosphere changed,” Fenech said, insisting that the interview was hostile in a way the jurors could not see from what was played to them. “I had no faith in the investigators.” Asked again in court, he said: “I have faith in the courts.”

“Keith Schembri was wise enough to keep away, and use me, Johann Cremona and Kenneth Camilleri,” Fenech said. “

Theuma’s motive, he said, was “to make friends with people in the underworld and get power with Keith Schembri. It worked because he got the pardon.”

“What if I told you that Theuma got a pardon for evidence and testimony which so many witnesses have corroborated?” Cini asked. “Because he had the Commissioner,” Fenech replied.

“So the CEO of Tumas Group became a postman?” Cini asked. “Yes,” Fenech replied.

The sitting focused on key conversations regarding the 17 Black inquiry.

It began with Cini referencing the WhatsApp group “No Valletta, No Party”, whose administrator was saved in Fenech’s phone as “Fraud”.  

The group also included Silvio Valletta, Joseph Cuschieri, then chief executive of the MFSA, and Kenneth Azzopardi, who worked in Schembri’s office. Fenech would not say who “Fraud” was; earlier testimony has indicated that Schembri was in the group.

Two voice notes from the chat were played, dated 11 August 2016 and 29 January 2019. In the second, Fenech ridicules Simon Busuttil, an “inquiry” and a box file of evidence. “It was a chat where we used to joke a lot,” he said, declining to confirm that it concerned the 17 Black inquiry. “It could be,” he added.

On that date, a request by Busuttil and David Casa for an inquiry into possible money laundering had been rejected, following revelations that 17 Black received €1.3 million from a Seychelles company owned by an Azeri national and from another company associated with the LNG tanker berthed at Delimara.

The facts, the inquiring magistrate ruled, had already formed part of an earlier inquiry. In February 2025, Fenech, Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and others were charged with bribery, corruption and other offences in connection with 17 Black.

On 29 January, Schembri sent an image of a confidential court decree relating to the 17 Black decision. This was an unsigned decree, sent more than four hours before the decision was shared with the parties involved. Fenech sent his voice note the same day.

The day before, Fenech had sent Schembri a screenshot of a chat between himself and Theuma, in which Theuma asked for help over a field. “I was a go-between for them,” Fenech said.

Cini also put to Fenech an image found on his phone listing names and dates of birth, including Roman Gusman, Alfred Degiorgio, Jamie Cella, Adrian Agius, Robert Agius, Vince Muscat, Aaron Cassar, Kevin Falzon and David Gatt, tagged with descriptions such as “executioners” and “general support including legal advice”.

Fenech told the court that Schembri had sent him the list, and confirmed that he passed on information to Theuma about the police investigation into the Maksar brothers. “Keith Schembri told me to do it,” he said.

The image, Cini said, came from a highly confidential Europol document on the murder. “I don’t know,” Fenech replied.

Fenech’s Prison & Questions of an Intimate Relationship 

Asked about Malta’s prison, Fenech denied having strong connections there. 

Fenech said he was “the most controlled” inmate. “In my division, we’re only allowed to go outside for one hour a day,” Cini said he held meetings with the prison’s head of strategy. Fenech called it “a lie”.

The claim concerns Svetlana Muscat, who allowed Fenech to meet people in her office and was placed on forced leave over the matter. “I was always escorted,” Fenech said. “There were tens of us who would go.”

He confirmed that he has a good relationship with her and maintains it to this day. Cini asked whether the relationship was intimate, drawing an angry reaction from Fenech’s lawyers. He did not answer the question.

Cini then produced the screenshot exhibited by Johann Cremona showing Reuben Farrugia with Charles Mercieca. Farrugia was one of the people who met Fenech in prison.

Fenech’s Brother and Drug Use 

Cini took Fenech through chats with his brother Franco beginning on 15 November 2019, the day after Theuma’s arrest. 

In one message, Franco sent a photograph of syringes, morphine, chemicals, cocaine detection wipes and drug tests. Another showed ecstasy pills, which Fenech said he did not recognise. “I did cocaine,” he told the court. A further photograph showed pills crushed into powder on a counter. “I don’t know,” he said.

“So you’re putting me in danger? This is my father’s office too, and I have a right to be here. I am not a warden, and I will not touch or throw away a single thing,” Franco wrote, as the brothers discussed getting clean together. “Make this office a happy, clean place like Papa used to work in.” “I didn’t go to the office to investigate. Do you know what the blue punisher is?” Fenech told the court he had never taken ecstasy.

A video filmed inside Fenech’s office, carrying his voice and sent from his phone, was played. Fenech said he had never seen it before, but confirmed that an object in it was used to “clean” his drugs. In the video, he explains rapidly how it works while snorting heavily. He put it down to paranoia. Cini suggested the process would make the drug stronger. “More healthy,” Fenech replied.

A later chat, dated 24 August 2019, was with Catherine Halpin, the chief operating officer of ElectroGas. “I was not in rehab; I was in a Houston jail,” Fenech wrote.