Taken together, the data shows that since 2006, Malta has lost at least 1.94 square kilometres of green land. The largest shift appears to be after 2012, which accounts for 90% of the land lost in the period under review.

Explore the map

According to the European Environment Agency, “the continuous loss of ecosystem functions renders [Europe] increasingly vulnerable when it comes to food self‑sufficiency and natural disasters”, and that going forward, governments should protect the most productive land from development.

A patchwork of strategies and plans governs development that converts natural or agricultural land into built-up areas. Sustainability goals exist in the Development Planning Act and local plans, but regulation, starting from the PN government’s rationalisation exercise in 2006, has allowed limited green spaces on the islands to be developed.

The government, in turn, is one of the largest developers of green land into grey space, contributing at least 112,467 m2 through prominent projects like the Hal Far expansion, Central Link, Addolorata cemetery, and airport runway expansion.

The Development Planning Act

The Development Planning Act includes a non-enforceable declaration that “It shall be the duty of the Government to enhance the quality of life for the benefit of the present and future generations” and “to consider public values, costs, benefits, risks and uncertainties involved when taking any decisions”.

The Act states that “In the pursuance of its functions under this Act, the [Planning] Authority shall, as far as possible, make reference to European Union best practices and standards”. The EU has set a goal of no net land take by 2050, which means no further increase in the share of land converted from natural to artificial surfaces. This means new land can still be built up, but it would need to be compensated by recultivating other built-up land.

The same law also stipulates that “no development shall be carried out except with development permission”. Development is defined as “building, engineering, quarrying, mining or other operations for the construction, demolition or alterations” or the making of any material change in use of land or building and sea, with limited exceptions such as maintenance. 

But the Act also opens a pathway to regularise development carried out without permission. A parliamentary question asked in 2023 revealed that over 2,000 illegally built structures were sanctioned between 2013 and then.

Moviment Graffiti and the local council challenged the Qala development mentioned earlier partly on the grounds of its negative impact on agricultural land. The court accepted the challengers’ arguments that agricultural use should be retained, and called the earlier tribunal’s reasoning that other uses, such as recreational pools, are permissible because they are not excluded by policy, “absurd”. For this reason alone, the court upheld the appeal, finding that the development was not permissible and the encroachment into agricultural land should not have been allowed.

A fresh application to sanction two pools in the same development is pending. 

In response to Amphora Media’s questions, the developers’ spokesperson said that “the land in question was already scheduled for development. The choice was therefore not between development and leaving the site in its natural state, but between one comprehensive, coordinated development and the possibility of approximately 40 individual plots being developed separately by different owners over time. We are very proud of the resulting development.”

The spokesperson added that “the relevant fines are being contested and we are currently pursuing the applicable sanctioning process” and that the developers “do not accept the characterisation that [the pools] were simply “illegally developed”, particularly while […] comparable pool developments on ODZ land have been permitted or sanctioned elsewhere in Malta and Gozo.”

Strategies, policies and plans

The entire territory of Malta is to be developed according to a Spatial Strategy. Local plans are adopted to manage development where that strategy is not enough.

In the early 90s through 2006, the government adopted policies and plans to regulate development in rural settlements outside the development zone (ODZ). The Rural Policy and Design Guidance, adopted in 2014, explicitly allowed expansion of buildings and introduction of enterprises in rural areas. The policy conflicted with adopted local plans, and in 2024, the government began revising the plans to avoid such conflicts.

The guiding principles in plans and strategies are written to safeguard localities from encroachment by construction. For example, the 2006 Gozo and Comino Local Plan stipulates that the overall strategy on these two islands encourages development that “improves the quality of life and the environment”, “is compatible with surrounding activities”, and “does not constitute over-development”.

“The extensive rural areas in Gozo and Comino require protection measures, and this is achieved by restraining further urban expansion, by protecting areas of conservation value and by designating strategic open space gaps between existing settlements,” the plan continues. 

As developments such as structures in Qala, which build over such open space gaps, suggest, expansions of built-up areas are approved anyway. 

Adopted in 2015, the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED) allows “social and community facilities” for education, health, and care for elderly people, among others, to be located in rural areas where “no feasible alternatives exist” in urban areas.

The Planning Reforms 

In 2020, the government changed the fuel stations policy, capping their total number and effectively banning new fuel stations on agricultural land. Extensions of fuel stations outside development zones are no longer permitted.

Earlier in July, the government announced a planning reform by which, when a development permit is subject to appeal, works must be suspended for the appeal’s duration rather than being allowed to continue or even be completed while the appeal is pending. The reform also introduces time limits for considering appeals: a tribunal must convene within 30 days of works being suspended and take no more than six months to reach a decision. Critics have pointed out loopholes in the reform.

Unveiling the reform, planning minister Jonathan Attard said it was proof that “the political commitments we have made to the people are being turned into concrete action, by placing quality of life, public trust and the rule of law at the heart of the planning system.”

The pattern is not one of missing rules, but of rules with built-in exits. The Development Planning Act’s duty to protect quality of life is declaratory and cannot be enforced against the Authority. SPED permits community facilities on rural land where no urban alternative is judged feasible. The Rural Policy and Design Guidance allowed rural buildings to expand in conflict with local plans, until the plans were revised to match. And where building happens without permission, the Act provides a route to regularise it: more than 2,000 illegal structures were sanctioned between 2013 and 2023.Of the 1.94 square kilometres lost since 2006, 90% went after 2012. 

“The countryside and coast remain two of the most important natural resources to conserve and protect from inappropriate development,” the 2006 Gozo and Comino Local Plan reads. It did not protect the agricultural land.

Agriculture is an environmental double-edged sword. On one hand, it is Europe’s largest contributor to biodiversity loss. On the other, half of all species in the EU rely on agricultural habitats. 

According to the European Environment Agency, conversion of natural or semi-natural land (it includes cropland) into artificial surfaces “reduces ecosystem resilience by fragmenting landscapes, decreasing carbon storage and biodiversity capacity, increasing flood risk through higher surface run-off, and intensifying heatwave impacts in urban areas” while also decreasing quality of life.

A new investigation by Amphora Media, guided by Arena for Journalism in Europe and supported by The Malta Environment Foundation, reveals that Malta lost nearly 830,000 square metres to construction between 2018 and 2023. Since 2006, Malta has lost at least 1.94 square kilometres of green land.

Explore the map

A deep learning image recognition model compared satellite images over time and flagged land that appeared developed from above, with journalists manually removing incorrect data.

When reviewing satellite imagery, Amphora Media’s team found land in rural areas that was used for parking cars, boats, and other scrap material, unable to serve its ecological function.

Between 2012 and 2018, around 920,000 square metres were taken up, according to the European Environment Agency’s estimate. 

Figures show that in nearly 95% of the take-up, farmland rather than natural area was affected. Around 26% of the Maltese islands’ area is covered by artificial surfaces, and almost 15% is built up as of 2022. 

“We cannot continue to sacrifice agricultural land for short-term economic gains,” BirdLife Malta, an environmental NGO, said in response to a new agricultural policy document earlier this year.

Agricultural land in the city to be built over

Concerns about the loss of agricultural land boiled over again in a discussion about an application to develop a plot in Swatar, a highly urbanised area. 

“Once again, the Planning Authority has chosen to side with developers instead of protecting the environment and the quality of life of residents,” the Momentum party said in a press release, reacting to the approval of the planning application.

“Beyond its agricultural value, this space plays an important role in the daily lives of residents. It offers a sense of openness in a dense urban environment, supporting both physical and mental well-being. It also serves a critical environmental function by absorbing rainwater runoff, helping to reduce flooding risks in surrounding areas, particularly in Msida,” Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, an environmental NGO, said

Agricultural sector in decline

Declining farmland goes hand in hand with Malta’s dwindling agricultural sector.

Between 2018 and 2023, Malta produced nearly 8% less vegetables and 12.3% less fruit (by weight). Between the two last agricultural censuses, 2010 and 2020, Malta lost nearly one in six agricultural holdings and over 6% of utilised agricultural land.

When development competes with agricultural land, its prices only rise. According to the latest agricultural census, Maltese farmers have 10,731 hectares of farmland, and about half of it is rented from the government. Land purchase prices in Malta are by far the highest in the EU.

“In Malta, one of the smallest countries in the world, land comes at a premium, and access to land is very limited. So if you have a new farmer, it’s almost impossible to enter the sector because they don’t have access to land and water,” Malcolm Borg, who leads Ghaqda Bdiewa Attivi, told Amphora Media in a previous investigation.

Despite farmers asking for help to afford land, Amphora Media’s earlier investigation has shown that funds earmarked by the EU to support farmers are routinely directed to road-building in Malta.

Cover image by: Joanna Demarco

Among the 20 largest pieces of land to be developed, the government is responsible for developing at least 112,466 m2 of land, roughly 13% of the total developed from 2018 onwards.

Explore the map

This analysis did not examine the circumstances of planning application approvals and focuses only on land-use change. There is no implication of wrongdoing.

These developments chip away at cropland and natural areas, making Malta one of the top countries in Europe for land loss to development.

Amphora Media has examined some of the largest land take-up projects. The research was based on analysis of satellite imagery [link to methodology]. 

No. 1 – Ħal-Far Industrial Estate – 32,948 m2

The plot is located within the Ħal Far Industrial Estate, managed by INDIS Malta, and has served as an industrial zone for decades. Back in 2018, this particular piece was an undeveloped field, and the converted area makes it the largest land take-up during the analysed period.

In 2022, Minister Silvio Schembri announced the relocation of Elepac Ltd’s factory to Hal Far. In 2024, the company applied to convert part of its factory to a waste management operation. According to reports, the land footprint was smaller than at the factory’s previous location. 

No. 2 – Concert Grounds in Ta’ Qali –  24,131 m2

Concert Grounds in Ta’ Qali was the second-largest expansion of built-up area, although satellite images show paths and structures in the area as of 2018. A permit to build concert facilities was granted in 2021 and included landscaping.

The Parks in Malta website describes the area used for concerts in Ta’ Qali as “previously derelict” and since transformed into “soft and hard landscaped spaces”. For prominent concerts, the location is indicated as Ta’ Qali National Park.

Instead, as reported in the media, the government has controversially paved gravel over a large picnic area within the adjacent national park, raising concerns about its impact on the soil, the material’s suitability, and its cost.

No. 3 – Addolorata Cemetery – 23,848 m2

The expansion of the government-owned Addolorata cemetery was the third-largest land take-up identified in the data. In 2019, Chris Fearne, then Minister of Health, announced the cemetery extension, adding 2,880 new graves.

No. 4 – Mqabba Quarry – 20,692 m2

The Mqabba quarry is the fourth-largest development. The plot, identified on Google Maps as Sier and Sons, is licensed for handling inert and excavation waste, among other activities. 

Quarries are included in the data as they are disturbed land that no longer supports ecosystems, and quarrying, alongside mining, is mentioned as development in the Development Planning Act.

No 5: Central Link Project 19,136.1 m² (combined two sites 6,586.46 m² + 12,549.64 m²)

Road expansion in Attard for the Central Link project, across two areas, was one of the largest intakes. 

Environmental groups had challenged the project in court and lost. Meanwhile, Infrastructure Malta insisted that the project would “halve travel times” and bring “better quality of life for thousands of residents”.

No. 6 – Shoreline Mall – 19,067 m2

The Shoreline Mall has occupied what used to be coastal land. Complete with trampolines and wall climbing, and home to a Starbucks and numerous global clothing brands, the mall is ultimately owned by five businessmen.

No. 7 – Quarry in Dingli 18,116 m2

Satellite image shows how fields were replaced with a busy developed site with stripped topsoil. 

No. 8 –  Estate – 17,612 m2

The estate, home to General Maintenance Ltd, an engineering company, and MaritimeMt, a training academy for maritime professionals, was once a field.

No. 9 – Malta Rescue Corps Plot –  16,425 m2

The Gozo plot hosting Malta Rescue Corps, an emergency response organisation, used to be covered with fields.

No. 10 – Quarry 15,147 m2

Land covered in fields has seen apparent quarry expansion. ERA lists six quarries in the area.

No. 11 – AX Centre in Mosta –  14,719 m2

A field surrounded by development has become the AX Business Centre in Mosta. AX Group calls this development “sustainable” and “eco-conscious”.

No 12: Antoine Camilleri block in Naxxar – 14,552 m2

A large area of rural land in Naxxar is being turned into a 6-floor development with underlying garages. Developed by Antoine Camilleri with Onyx.

The development entered the news earlier this year after the threat of a major collapse saw residents evacuated.

No. 13: Qala ODZ-Pools – 13,751 m2

The Hal Wardija resort apartments complex in Qala has replaced fields that broke up a heavily developed landscape in Gozo. The area is marketed to tourists as “quiet”.

This development consisted of separate applications to build garages and apartments. Pools were built illegally and then sanctioned, but a court later revoked that decision. Excel Investments Ltd filed the applications; it is co-owned by Daniel Refalo, Joseph Portelli, and Mark and Joseph Agius, and the fines for the illegal pools remain pending. A new application to sanction two pools is pending. 

ERA had objected to this development, given its ODZ encroachment, and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage noted with “grave concern” that the development was irreversibly changing the rural area.

In response to Amphora Media’s questions, the developers’ spokesperson said that “the land in question was already scheduled for development. The choice was therefore not between development and leaving the site in its natural state, but between one comprehensive, coordinated development and the possibility of approximately 40 individual plots being developed separately by different owners over time. We are very proud of the resulting

development.”

The spokesperson added that “the relevant fines are being contested and we are currently pursuing the applicable sanctioning process” and that the developers “do not accept the characterisation that [the pools] were simply “illegally developed”, particularly while […] comparable pool developments on ODZ land have been permitted or sanctioned elsewhere in Malta and Gozo.”

No 14:  Airport runway expansion – 12,403.86 m²

This rounds up the largest land use changes on government sites (Central Link, the cemetery, the industrial estate expansion, and the concert grounds).

No 15: Villas and Apartments in Attard: 12,069.56 m²

A large green area in Attard, located behind the American Embassy in Ta’ Qali.

The site was developed across multiple applications and includes villas, terraced houses, and apartment blocks.

No 16. Vista Xlokk, Marsaxlokk: 11,783.35 m²

A housing development in Marsaxlokk called Vista Xlokk ate up several fields. Malta Tourism Authority’s listings show that at least one of the development’s apartments is used as a short-let.

No. 17: The Crest, Sannat: 10,792.49 m²

This development included residential units and pools. Realtors market apartments in the development to those who enjoy “natural surroundings” and “country views”.

While Valletta stands as one of Malta’s most celebrated historical landmarks, an area of green space larger than the UNESCO capital has been lost to construction since 2018.

A new investigation by Amphora Media, in collaboration with Arena for Journalism in Europe and supported by The Malta Environment Foundation, reveals how nearly 830,000 square metres of nature and cropland have been built up in Malta between 2018 and 2023.

That’s about 116 football pitches – or two Manoel Islands – and roughly a quarter of Comino. It’s almost double the entire land area of Vatican City.

The investigation uses methodology established in ‘Green to Grey’, an award-winning investigation into documented green land (nature and cropland) loss in Europe. It was coordinated by Arena for Journalism in Europe and initiated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) to quantify for the first time exactly how much nature is being lost to construction in Europe. 41 journalists from 11 countries worked together with scientists from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) to refine their novel methodology. Malta was excluded… until now.

Explore the map

Malta’s total land loss stands at 0.26%, placing it above the UK and among the top 5 countries by share of green area lost to development. The figure is a conservative estimate as the data uses an AI model to flag potential ‘Green to Grey’ areas.

The largest five areas identified in the research in Malta ranged from over 20,000 to over 34,000 square metres.

The land use changes may seem small on a map and are dispersed across Malta and Gozo. But as Peter Verburg, a professor of environmental spatial analysis at VU University Amsterdam, explained, the cumulative impact is driving global change.

According to figures provided by the European Environment Agency, Malta lost 920,000 square metres of land to development between 2012 and 2018; between 2006 and 2012, Malta lost 190,000 square metres.

Taken together, the data show that since 2006, when the PN government introduced its rationalisation exercise, Malta has lost at least 1.94 square kilometres of green land.

Artificial surfaces are the largest land use category in Malta, followed by cropland, which constitutes another quarter, and shrubland, about one fifth of the land area.

Statistically, around 26% of the Maltese islands’ area is covered by artificial surfaces, and almost 15% is built up as of 2022. 

Source: Eurostat

For comparison, areas enjoying some form of protection under the Natura 2000 framework cover nearly 14% of Malta’s land. Compared to other EU countries, Malta has a low rate of artificial area per resident, meaning that many people are concentrated in relatively small built-up areas.

In the Green to Grey team’s analysis, the Netherlands led in the share of land taken up by construction between 2018 and 2023, with 0.46%. Belgium, Poland, and the UK followed, with 0.25% or more. Countries of the Scandinavian peninsula lost 0.06% or less.

How did we do it?

With guidance from Arena for Journalism in Europe and Green to Grey’s coordinators, Amphora Media replicated the project’s methodology. This consisted of:

1. Using Dynamic World, a land use and land cover dataset produced by Google and the World Resources Institute, employing a deep learning model;
2. Tuning the algorithm to isolate every pixel that changed from not being built-up to being built-up between 2018 and 2023;
3. Manually verifying the model’s output;
4. Calculating the land take-up;
5. Finding case studies.

The team did not manually examine the entire territory of Malta to see whether the algorithm missed any developments, so the calculations and the map of identified land use change are conservative estimates, and some developments may be missing.

This method used satellite images only and did not address whether the land taken up is outside the development zone.

How to use the map

The map outlines the areas that were developed (turned from green to grey) and were detected as such by the algorithm. By scrolling through the map, you can zoom in, select a site, and see how it changed from a satellite view.

The Amphora Media team verified the shapes on the map using satellite imagery. Inaccuracies may occur where satellite images were unclear. The algorithm may have missed some developments because it relied only on satellite imagery. Therefore, use the map as a starting point for further inquiry rather than as conclusive evidence.

This investigation was supported by The Malta Environment Foundation

Public groundwater from boreholes and pumping galleries covers close to 42% of the total public water supply. Nearly two-thirds of monitoring stations across the islands showed that groundwater levels decreased between 2000 and 2021 due to abstraction.

Data obtained by Amphora Media from the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) show that Polidano Brothers Ltd, Monte Kristo Vineyards Ltd and Polmesh Ltd have extracted nearly 227.5 million litres of water in 2020-2024 from their metered boreholes.

Monte Kristo Vineyards is the single largest extractor in the data set, extracting nearly 118.7 million litres of groundwater. It has four registered boreholes, but ERA had data from only one of them. This means that the company’s water footprint may be even larger. The boreholes are located in Mqabba, Qrendi and Siggiewi.

Polidano Group did not respond to Amphora Media’s questions about its water consumption and operations.

University of Malta’s water management expert Dr Julian Mamo says that some water sources are more important than others. “It’s all about drawdown,” he says, explaining how water in aquifers sits in lens-shaped structures, and intense extraction at the top of the aquifer would lower the water level for all nearby users, leading to seawater intrusion. “It very much depends on where you are. So the problem is the uncontrolled use from a single point,” he said.

The Planning Authority’s map shows that the Monte Kristo Vineyards site lies next to water infrastructure important for the public supply.

One of the boreholes that has no data is registered for private water supply. By law, private water suppliers provide water for commercial food and drink production, consumption on hospitality and restaurant premises, hospitals, and bottling. They must be registered.

Monte Kristo Vineyards has not filed accounts with the Malta Business Registry in almost 16 years. It risked being struck off in 2024, but avoided the procedure.

Malta Business Registry declined to comment on this specific case, but said that generally speaking, the striking off process can be halted “where an objection is received from a creditor, where the Registry is informed of pending judicial proceedings, or where the company demonstrates that it remains operational.”

Polmesh was set up to manufacture and supply building materials, and for steel manufacturing. It extracted nearly 62 million litres of water from its borehole in 2020-2024. Polidano Brothers extracted a further 47 million litres.

When asked whether commercial water supply, including by Montekristo Direct for government tenders, comes from an unmetered borehole, government authorities did not reply.

Supported by the government

Polidano companies have received government contracts for various construction, excavation and repair works. The Monte Kristo complex has hosted government-promoted events: a start-up festival, a statue collectors’ event, and an Arts Council workshop for children. Another company co-owned by Polidano, which specialises in alcohol and beverages, got a tender to supply soft drinks.

Charles Polidano had reportedly accrued some €40 million in unpaid taxes by 2021, before settling for less than €10 million with the tax commissioner.

Polidano Brothers ended the year 2023 with a loss of nearly €6 million, which it attributed to construction delays despite construction contracts worth €32 million and revenues from building materials, sale of property, and sale of fuel. Auditors noted that the company did not provide sufficient documentation for the audit.

In the financial year 2019, Polidano Brothers entered into an agreement with the Inland Revenue Department to repay overdue social security contributions with the government agreeing to waive some penalties for late payment. However, the company admitted to not respecting the terms of the agreement and instead discussing with the government to settle partly in-kind or introduce “set-offs against dues by Government to the Company”.

Polmesh, too, ended 2023 with a loss of close to €600,000.

Monte Kristo Vineyards Ltd received agricultural subsidies through the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2023 and 2024. The area has been subject to Planning Authority enforcement notices over illegal building on the agricultural site, which also features a concrete plant and a batching plant.

Charles Polidano’s 2009 and 2010 applications to sanction Montekristo’s family park, including an illegal zoo and an extension of its winery, in Siggiewi, were approved by the Planning Authority in July 2025 despite pending court cases concerning the site.

Official data shows that Monte Kristo Vineyards Ltd received over €36,000 in CAP subsidies in 2024, about a third of which were for environmental measures, and a further €37,000 in 2025.

In 2017, “Montekristo” (not specified, although the group contains several companies with this brand) received a €122,500 catering and ancillary services tender to service Malta’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2017.

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

A cross-border investigation covering Malta, Cyprus and Portugal shows that three of the EU’s five most water-stressed countries systematically tolerate over-exploitation by for-profit companies. 

“Turn off the water while you brush your teeth and save up to 15 litres a minute. That’s up to 760 litres a week for a family of four,” a government campaign says. Meanwhile, the largest groundwater user drew at least 250,867 litres per week for a sprawling estate.

In 2023, Malta used 35 million cubic metres, or 35 billion litres, of groundwater. 13 million cubic metres were used for the public water supply; over 17 million for irrigation in agriculture and forestry; and roughly 1.5 million for manufacturing and services.

“Over-abstraction has resulted in the intrusion of saline waters in the main mean sea level aquifer systems, contributing to the gradual salinisation of these important groundwater reserves,” a government green paper, published in 2023, said.

To address unsustainable use, the green paper proposed pricing and quotas for water users. Since then, nothing has happened, except for unspecified “internal discussions”, according to the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA).

The registered commercial share is another question. Official records provided by ERA to Amphora Media show that more than 63% of all registered commercial groundwater boreholes are providing “no data”.

“What is probably happening is that most operators across the board would have one registered borehole and one or more, which is not. This so that, if the government decides to charge a tariff on the water pumped from the registered borehole, they will shift pumping from one borehole to another and continue as usual,” water treatment engineer and hydrologist Marco Cremona told Amphora Media after reviewing the data.

He is convinced that the dataset is incomplete: “I know of a number of commercial operators that pump a lot of water but are not on the list. For example, there is no information on the groundwater being pumped by commercial laundries – who also are big users of water,” he said.

Data indicates a rise in groundwater abstraction (more colloquially, extraction) by commercial operators over the period.

In 2020, total consumption stood at 459.9 million litres. By 2023, it had climbed to 656.8 million litres. In 2024 (the most recently available data), the figure dipped to 605.3 million litres, below the 2023 peak but still well above 2020 levels.

THE TOP GROUNDWATER ABSTRACTORS

Over-Abstraction Can Make Groundwater ‘Unusable For Decades’

A report by the European Environment Agency has found that over-abstraction causes salty water to mix with freshwater sources, particularly in Mediterranean countries like Malta, which could render groundwater “unusable for decades.”

It can also damage agricultural yields. Groundwater supplies over 80% of the Maltese agricultural sector’s needs, costing these users around €0.25 per cubic metre to deliver it where it is needed.

Marsa Sports Club, itself a major water user with over 18 million litres abstracted in 2020-2024, told Amphora Media that increasing salinity has been demanding more investments: “as the quality of the groundwater has deteriorated over the years through increasing salinity, the Club has been obliged to invest significant funds in adapting its facilities,” the club said. “These investments have been funded from the Club’s limited resources.”

The EU has set objectives to restore and protect the water cycle from source to sea by recognising water scarcity as a priority in the European Green Deal and various strategies, stating that “groundwater needs to be protected from pollution and over-exploitation”. 

The bloc’s Water Resilience Strategy calls for action to address “structural mismanagement of water due to both legal and illegal over-abstraction”.

Countries must “increase their efforts to register and control all abstractions”, and a pan-EU review of the strategy is promised in 2027. A 2025 Commission recommendation calls on countries to “apply appropriate water pricing to ensure the efficient use of water” and “adopt sufficiently dissuasive sanctions for illegal, unregistered or non-permitted water abstractions and discharges”.

None of this has stopped the government of Malta from allowing commercial operators to benefit from free groundwater abstraction, as long as they own boreholes.

Spokespersons of the government authorities contacted for comment did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions. The European Commission’s spokesperson told the investigation team that in principle, “Member States are required to control abstractions of fresh surface water and groundwater” including “a requirement for prior authorisation and the maintenance of a register or registers of water abstractions”, but “Member States may exempt from these controls any abstractions that ‘have no significant impact on water status.”

“There is some room for manoeuvre, and member states have been overusing this exemption now for years,” says Claire Baffert, water expert at the WWF European Policy Office.

How the free water economy works

The arrangement is simple: whoever owns a borehole pumps it for free.

Based on ERA data obtained by Amphora Media, Cremona compared extraction data across seasons and noted that summer abstraction is 29% above the annual average.

“A substantial part of this water is pumped by bowser operators who sell their water to hotels, for landscaping, for the filling up of swimming pools etc. In comparison, the pumping in winter (the wet season in Malta) goes down to 22% below the annual average,” he said.

Non-potable water, called second-class water, can be used for toilet flushing, laundry, cleaning and irrigation. This water would cost €0.093 per cubic metre for agricultural or industrial purposes, or €0.932 per cubic metre for building or other applications, if it was purchased from the Water Services Corporation.

“Some commercial operators have reverse osmosis plants operating on groundwater, as an alternative to buying town water. In this situation, we are looking at three costs:

• the cost of pumping it from the ground to the surface – which is a relatively minor cost; 
• the cost of the treatment process itself (both in capital expenditure and operating costs); 
• and finally, there’s the discharge cost of the reverse osmosis reject. 

Notwithstanding these costs, it is still cheaper than buying public water,” Cremona said.

Dr Julian Mamo, a lecturer at the University of Malta working on water resources management in Malta, says that the cost of pumping, or lifting, groundwater cannot be considered negligible for sectors with lower profit margins such as agriculture. 

“In a country like Malta, where in the past our ancestors had to live with water scarcity, people then generally used water efficiently. Today this may not be the case for everyone, for sure. But generally, full-time farmers continue to use water efficiently because of the effort required to obtain this water,” he said.

“It’s the cumulative impact of all those abstractions that matters, and if none of those is monitored, then you end up in a situation where there is just too much water abstracted without everyone taking note of that,” WWF’s Baffert says.  Yet Malta’s commercial sector, responsible for 16% of private abstractions as of 2023 and growing, continues to pump for free. 

Read the second part of our investigation, looking at the companies and industries drawing the most free groundwater in Malta, here.

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

This is the second part of our investigation, Profit In Every Drop. Read part one here.

The Major Abstractors: Landscaping and Construction 

“A lot of water is used in construction in the production of concrete and bricks. The greater part of this water comes from registered/ unregistered groundwater pumped from boreholes – not from town water,” engineer Cremona told Amphora Media. “This is putting additional pressure on Malta’s already-stressed groundwater system – when we should be reducing extraction, not increasing it.”

From the available data, three companies controlled by brothers Carmel (known as Charles, or Ċaqnu) and Paul Polidano are the largest identified commercial consumers of free groundwater from metered boreholes on their properties. 

Data obtained by Amphora Media from ERA shows that Polidano Brothers Ltd, Monte Kristo Vineyards Ltd and Polmesh Ltd have extracted over 227.5 million litres of water in 2020-2024 from their metered boreholes.

GEB Landscaping, owned by V & C Contractors Limited, Ozo Group, Derek Garden Centre and Sicilville SRL in Italy, alone was the second-largest abstractor, with almost 106 million litres of groundwater across the dataset.

Our analysis shows that the landscaping company’s water footprint is highest in summer, 21% above the annual average in 2024. The address of the borehole is stated as simply “Attard”.

In 2025, GEB Landscaping lost, due to jurisdictional and procedural grounds, its legal challenge against a €11,461.31 fine imposed after the Water Services Corporation, which accused it of tampering with its water meter. The case was transferred to another court. GEB Landscaping did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

GEB Landscaping routinely receives tenders and direct orders for landscaping. In 2022, it received a €33.5 million contract to maintain landscaped areas on the islands. The Ozo Group, which leads the GEB consortium, called this contract “improving the environment for future generations”.

Mamo, the water management expert, says that landscaping is an important service in Malta. Rather than punishing groundwater use, the government should incentivise alternative water sources and encourage greater care in selecting plants suited to an increasingly arid climate.

In summer, water demand from landscaping soars. Photo credit: DOI

“I wouldn’t attack the landscaper. I would incentivise him to diversify his irrigation water sources. Tell him that the water cannot come from one borehole or two or three. We need to essentially redistribute where you get your water from,” he says, adding that for landscaping purposes, water does not need to be potable and can have a higher nitrogen content.

Attard Blue Mix Concrete Supplies and Attard Concrete Systems, are within the top 20 abstractors. The companies no longer exist and were absorbed into Cementstone Manufacturing Company Limited, owned by Attard Group.

Cementstone Manufacturing Company Limited, which produces and sells building materials to the construction industry, finished the financial year with over €24 million revenue, and a post-tax profit of over €550,000, a year after turning over a million in after-tax profit.

Attard Group benefited from over 59 million litres of free groundwater during the 2020-2024 period. No data was supplied for one of the boreholes in 2024.

Two companies belonging to the Elbros Group reported the use of over 11 million litres of water from their boreholes.

Meanwhile, Ballut Blocks Ltd, which produces concrete blocks and prefabricated concrete, logged over 7 million litres during 2024. According to its website, the company took part in building the airport runway, City Gate in Valletta, Tigne’ Point’s commercial block and Smart City, among other projects. 

None of the companies mentioned in this section replied to Amphora Media’s questions. 

Water & Wine: From Thirst to Profit

Water suppliers, predictably, extract groundwater for their business. 

A borehole owned by Sebastian Briffa and used by water supplier Victor Busuttil, known as tal-Maniklu, came third in terms of abstraction volumes over a five-year period, with over 100 million litres. 

Busuttil is a recipient of tenders and contracts, including Wasteserv, the Park Directorate, Ambjent Malta and SportMalta,  to supply water. He did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

A borehole registered to Madalien Ltd shows the 4th-largest abstraction of groundwater with over 96.2 million litres. The borehole was still registered in the company’s name as of 2024 although the company has been struck off after a merger with Master Wine Holdings Limited back in 2016.

The latter company is the registered owner of Camilleri Wines, Caraffa Wines, Zeppi’s Liqueur, Black Eagle, Just squashes, Budvar beer, Hawaiki juice, mySmoothie and Hildon bottled water. The company does not file income statements, using a legal exemption.

The borehole attributed to Madalien is located at San Gwann industrial estate. Louie Camilleri is the registered owner of the borehole. 

Branded water for PAVI supermarkets is produced on this industrial estate by Nibe Beverages Ltd, which also supplies Aquani water dispensers. PAVI has its own borehole but is not providing abstraction data to ERA. It did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Nibe has received EU funding in Malta to export its product abroad. It received a €222,116 grant to produce more bottled water and another €232,276 for machinery. 

The spokesperson of CassarCamilleri Ltd, a joint venture involving Master Wine, said that the borehole use is shared between this group and Nibe Beverages, as both have initially invested in the borehole. “Our regulatory oversight has always been conducted through the Water Services Corporation (WSC) and the Health Department, who inspect the borehole and to whom we are obliged to provide readings and test results,” the spokesperson said when asked why ERA’s borehole ownership information was outdated.

With close to 78 million litres and over 48.5 million litres abstracted respectively, boreholes owned by Raymond Barbara and Alexander Vella round up the rest of the water suppliers in the top 10.

A separate A Vella Water Supplies Ltd borehole is registered on the same street as Vella’s. The company has not been filing accounts to MBR as required by law, leading MBR to issue a warning in 2020 and initiate strike-off procedures.

The company abstracted close to 3 million litres. When contacted for comment, the company’s representative suggested that Amphora Media investigates other suppliers.

In addition to Barbara, two other water suppliers, Vincent and Jonathan Desira, are registered users of Barbara’s borehole. 

Cremona’s analysis of ERA’s data suggests that 11 more boreholes may be attributable to water suppliers, but their names have been redacted.

Simonds Farsons Cisk Ltd, the maker of Cisk, Kinnie and San Michel water, is shown in ERA’s data as the 12th-largest user of groundwater in 2020-2024 with close to 30 million litres from one borehole and no data from another, which the company said was not in use. Simonds Farsons Cisk plc reports exporting products to more than 15 countries.

The company says it has since invested into water reuse and switched to using the public supply of water, for which it pays. In response to Amphora Media’s questions, its representative said the information was inaccurate and “No groundwater whatsoever has been extracted by the Farsons Group from any of its three boreholes since September 2020.”

Tourism

Tourism is one of the seven priority sectors promoted by the government and the most important industry according to a survey of Maltese residents. It is also a key player in groundwater abstraction. In hotels, groundwater can be used for pools, toilets and other applications. 

San Lawrenz Leisure Resort Ltd, which owns the Kempinski hotel in Gozo, is the fifth-largest user of free groundwater from its boreholes, with over 94.3 million litres in 2021-2024. Kempinski has six registered pools on its premises. It is also located next to important groundwater infrastructure.

The company is registered as a small private enterprise and is exempt from submitting income statements to the Malta Business Registry. It is estimated that the company’s investment property is worth over €31.8 million. 

The hotel in Malta is owned by Baldacchino Holdings Limited. The same group also owns Olive Gardens Investments Limited, a wedding reception and catering company, which owns a borehole that used nearly 3 million litres in 2020-2024.

That brings the total that Baldacchino Holdings companies extracted close to 100 million litres for the years for which they provided data.

According to official accounts, the entire group’s profit was close to €1.2 million in 2021. The group’s revenues from hospitality and leisure in 2021 were close to €5.6 million.

In Kempinski brand’s global annual report for 2024, the network wrote about the importance of water conservation and noted annual water reduction targets in its hotels, including recapture and recycling of water.

Gozo Village Holidays, a short and long-term rental company, is another of the top 20 users of groundwater.

In 2020-2021, none of the company’s three boreholes supplied abstraction data to ERA, but data for two boreholes appear from 2022, with over 10.1 million litres abstracted from 2022 to 2024. 

The company runs short lets and long rentals, features a swimming pool in its marketing to tourists and is run at the Fanal complex.

Several hospitality businesses own boreholes but do not report the data to ERA. This includes:

• Corinthia Palace Hotel in Attard: Corinthia Palace Hotel Company Limited, renamed CPHCL Company Limited and owned by, among others, the Libyan Foreign Investment Company.
• FTI Hotel Management (Malta) Limited, since renamed Meeting Point Hotel Management (Malta) Limited, and owned by Joseph Beppe Bugeja, Vassallo Group and its owners. It is a tour and hotel operator running the Labranda brand. Its borehole is located at the Riviera Spa Resort in Mellieha, which hosts Carisma Spa and Wellness. It has eight registered pools, although some of them are filled with seawater.
• Bella Vista Hotel, which has registered two swimming pools and two spa pools. It is owned by BV Formosa Company Ltd.
• C H Formosa Company Limited, which runs three hotels, a holiday villa and a holiday complex. ERA did not receive data from its borehole. One of their hotels has four registered swimming pools, and the other two have one each.
• Sunflower Hotels Co Ltd, which advertises a children’s pool and a heated indoor pool on its premises. It is currently in dissolution.
• Villa Rosa Hotel in St Julian’s offers self-catering accommodation and is now part of a multi-story development. It has one registered pool. A development application to replace existing buildings with a new complex was approved in 2025.
   

None of the companies mentioned above in this section replied to Amphora Media’s questions.

Two other companies were linked to boreholes with missing data:

• Mavina Holiday Complex, which Business Today reported has been sold to Joseph Portelli’s company. However, at the time of writing Hal Mann Vella Group PLC was still a shareholder. The owners’ representative said no boreholes currently belong to the complex.
  
• The Embassy Valletta hotel is linked to a borehole for which no data is reported. The company’s representative said the hotel only uses the public water supply and does not abstract from any borehole.

The Energy and Water Agency once initiated a project to help hospitality establishments audit their water use. When asked whether such ‘soft’ action addresses the over-extraction by the tourism sector, EWA did not reply.

Sport & event establishments

Sport clubs are a key feature in the data, although they are non-profits. Marsa Sports Club used over 18 million litres of water in 2020-2024, Qormi Clay Shooting Club used over 6 million, the Malta Football Association used nearly 5.5 million, and Malta Shooting Sport Federation used over 5 million litres from their registered boreholes. 

Not all of them supply the data. The Royal Malta Golf Club and Malta Racing Club, both boasting extensive landscaped area, have abstraction records missing. When asked whether their boreholes are unmetered and how much water the clubs abstract, the club’s representatives did not reply.

Properties hosting events also feature on the list provided by ERA, including:

• Sciclunas Estates, the owners of Palazzo Parisio, an events venue, which was the 21st-largest user of groundwater from boreholes. 
• Mount St. Joseph Retreat, a Jesuit-owned conference venue, which used more than 10 million litres of water over five years;
• Palazzo Promontorio, a wedding venue that can fit 700 people in its outside area, belonging to the AX Group, which showed more modest consumption, with 2 million litres. “At AX Group, sustainability is woven into our ethos, driving us to minimise our environmental impact across all facets of our operations,” the owning group claims. 

Palazzo Stagno in Qormi, another wedding and event venue which specifically offers pool parties, is not reporting data to ERA. Representatives of these venues did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Public sector finances water supply

The public sector (national and EU authorities) is left to foot the bill for declining water quality and quantity. When overused groundwater becomes saltier, the cost of treating it increases.

“Malta continues to invest in leakage reduction, network modernisation, improved quality of desalinated water, expansion of reclaimed water networks and water demand management through a national investment programme exceeding 300 million euros,” Christopher Farrugia, Malta’s representative to the EU, stated in the EU’s Environment Council. When asked how these objectives are compatible with free and unmetered extraction for profit, Malta’s Representation to the EU and the Environment Ministry did not reply.

Malta has implemented an EU-funded project, reportedly worth €100 million, to improve the desalinated water and groundwater blend. Another €62 million project focused on upgrading reverse osmosis plants and rehabilitating boreholes. Around €3.5 million in EU funds was invested in water network improvements.

Malta has reported that EU-funded water infrastructure projects faced significant delays because contractors failed to complete work on time.

The European Commission refused Amphora Media’s request to disclose audit reports of funded projects, citing the reason that disclosure “could undermine the rights of the persons or entities concerned.”

Asked to comment on policy coherence, where the government invests in protecting water resources but also contracts users of free and loosely monitored groundwater, OPM did not reply.

Dr Mamo says that each groundwater source has its own vulnerabilities and therefore needs to be managed differently. “In Malta’s mean sea-level aquifer, and the equivalent aquifer in Gozo, our largest and most productive aquifers, it’s all about drawdown,” he says. He explains that freshwater forms a lens floating above seawater, maintained by a delicate balance between abstraction and recharge. Excessive pumping can lower groundwater levels, increasing the risk of seawater being drawn up into the freshwater lens above it. “It very much depends on where you are. The problem is uncontrolled abstraction from a single point,” he says.

“Wherever I go, no one tells me ‘I don’t care about groundwater. I want to pollute it or I want to damage it’. Absolutely not. Actually, people will say, ‘Am I pumping too much?’ The general sentiment is that groundwater sustains a lot of people.”

The European Commission has noted that “water abstractions are reported to be responsible for the failure to achieve good quantitative or ecological status” in many countries, and “Although they failed to submit their reports, this is known to be also a significant issue in Cyprus, Greece and Malta.” Yet Malta’s commercial sector, responsible for 16% of private abstractions as of 2023 and growing, continues to pump for free. 

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

Charles Mercieca told the jurors that the hand belonged to Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister. He said Schembri used and discarded a chain of people (Melvin Theuma, David Gatt, Keith Arnaud, Lawrence Cutajar, Johann Cremona, Kenneth Camilleri, Dr Adrian Vella and finally Fenech himself).

“All roads lead to Keith, and all bridges to Keith were burnt,” Mercieca said.

Schembri, who testified over three days in late July, denied any involvement in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and has not been charged with the murder but has been charged with leaking information.

Mercieca opened by thanking the jurors for what he called 48 days “from the hotel to the trial and from the trial to the hotel”.

The bulk of the argument attacked Melvin Theuma, the confessed middleman who was granted a presidential pardon in November 2019 and whose evidence forms the spine of the bill of indictment.

Mercieca told the jurors that the pardon was unnecessary and that its real function was to fix a version of events. Theuma, he said, had already been caught running what Mercieca called the largest illegal lottery in Malta.

He listed what Theuma allegedly retained: a fleet of taxis, 20 properties, two promise-of-sale agreements, and the money paid to him for a government job.

A pardon, he reminded the jury, does not appear on a conduct certificate. “This man did all this dirt, and he has a clean conduct, like mine.”

Mercieca’s central factual argument was that the timeline does not work. The prosecution’s case, following Theuma, places the order for the killing in April 2017, at a meeting Theuma described at the Blue Elephant restaurant.

Mercieca told the jury that Fenech’s passport carries a US entry stamp dated 7th April, and that the SIM card used with the device was already in place in January 2017. Theuma never provided an exact date.

“If the bomb was in Malta before the order was given, what do Theuma’s accounts mean?” Mercieca said.

He told the jurors that Theuma was cross-examined for three days without a single question from the prosecution about the Blue Elephant meeting.

The investigation was, in his words, “botched”. The catalogue he put to the jury: Schembri’s “lost” phone, Daphne’s laptop, and the investigations into Schembri and Chris Cardona’s potential involvement.

Mercieca rejected the prosecution’s case that Fenech ordered the killing to protect 17 Black and ElectroGas, telling the jury that Caruana Galizia was writing about Egrant and about Schembri’s health at the same time.

He pointed to the six blog posts Caruana Galizia published about Schembri in November 2017, including one about an illness he was trying to keep private.

“She was not killed over something she was going to write,” he said, “but over what she had written.”

Mercieca ended on Thursday morning by inviting the jurors to substitute one name for another. “Change February, March, April, May, swap Yorgen for Keith Schembri, and see how much sense the story makes.”

He described his client as a man caught between three others, whom he named as Schembri, former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar and Theuma.

He got in between the wolf and the devil, and he has paid bitterly.”

Schembri, he reminded the jury, had told the court that Theuma was the biggest liar in Malta. “Do you know why he said that? Because Keith Schembri knows the truth.”

He asked for a verdict of not guilty. The defence called three witnesses: 

John Abela (HR Support Services, OPM) 

He confirmed Schembri’s job description as chief of staff, and that Sandro Craus (head of government customer care) fell under the chief of staff. He confirmed that Castille has two entrances: the main door on Castille Square, used “generally by ministers, an ambassador”, and the St Paul Street entrance, where visitors are logged at reception with their details, time in, signature and time out. 

Under cross-examination, he confirmed there is no document setting out who may use which door.

Dr Rausi (Bank of Valletta) 

Rausi was called to give the transactions on Fenech’s Tumas Gaming Ltd Visa gold card in April 2017.

The prosecution objected that the documents were never exhibited; Gianella de Marco argued they were not new documents, and that the BOV representative has been on the defence witness list since 2020 

The Judge refused to let the witness answer at all, on the ground that she would be reading from documents rather than testifying from her own knowledge.

Dr Chris Frendo (head of legal, ElectroGas) 

Frendo gave the leak chronology. He joined in early July 2017. On 26 December 2017 he was called and found something that worried him: on 29 May 2017 someone with a password, working through the external IT administrator ICT Solutions Limited, had run keyword searches on Keith Schembri, Joseph Muscat, Turnville, Dubai, “passport”, Konrad Mizzi, Macbridge, 17 Black, Henley and Partners, Sai Mizzi and a “Chang” whose surname he could not recall. Operations director Catherine Halpin emailed the directors on 27 December 2017. 

The company terminated the IT contract, took the function in-house, notified counterparties of a possible leak, and filed a police report in April 2018 once fragments of emails began appearing in the media.

He denied there was any “aura of worry” at ElectroGas in 2017, said the only pressure was closing the financing, and said the deadlines moved. Still, operations and the Enemalta supply were unaffected.

The prosecution’s reply and the judge’s summing-up follow.

Prosecutor Godwin Cini put Fenech’s whole account back to him as a single run before telling him: “Your fingerprints are all over this.”

Fenech’s answer to all of it was that he was a victim of blackmail who had no involvement in the murder and no obligation to pay for it. 

He told the court he had cried, that he had continued using drugs, and that the gaps and shifts in his police statement were because he had not been “comprehensive” while still affected by them.

Cini said Fenech’s account was built backwards to fit the evidence. He put to Fenech that he had invented in his statement and had gone on inventing in the trial. 

“I am here in the trial to tell the truth,” Fenech replied.

Cini’s cross-examination covered three key issues: payments, 17 Black and the recordings

Payments to Theuma

Fenech maintained he had no obligation to pay anything for the murder and no involvement in it, but paid anyway, describing the payments as blackmail.

He accepted paying €50,000 and a further €60,000 to Theuma, and insisted that Schembri sent between €75,000 and €80,000 to Fenech to cover the expenses.

Cini told him that, with his power and contacts, he had many options, and he chose the worst one: no police report, no warning to the Caruana Galizia family, no step to stop the plan. Fenech: “If I could turn back time, I’d do many things differently.” 

Pressed on whether Schembri is the mastermind, Fenech said he had no doubt; Cini said that this is an assumption. Fenech admitted he could not say so “100 per cent under oath”.

17 Black

Cini focused most of the morning session on a document-led sequence of the reporting on 17 Black.

It began with Daphne’s first blog post naming the UAE company on 22nd February 2017, and a comment thread below where Daphne names Yorgen Fenech as the likely owner of the company. She also referenced the company in three other posts, the last one published on 27th February 2017.

Eight days later, Fenech changed the company’s name from 17 Black to Wings Development Limited. Fenech said this was because of adverse media reports naming the company, prompted by a call with the bank. 

Fenech insisted there was no connection between 17 Black and ElectroGas, describing them as “oranges and apples,” and said he was not angry about her reporting. 

He assumed Daphne discovered 17 Black because the company had paid for Schembri’s medical bills in the USA – and not because of its link to the Panama companies of Schembri and Mizzi.

Cini then referenced the wealth of evidence against 17 Black, including the FIAU report references and articles about kickbacks from the LNG tanker.

He was shown a December 2015 email from Karl Cini naming Tillgate and Hernville as Panama companies with 17 Black and Macbridge as main clients. 

Fenech said he did not write it and learned of the Tillgate/Hernville ownership from the media. Cini’s point: 17 Black ended up the main target client of Schembri’s and Mizzi’s structures. Fenech: “There was no interaction.”

Two of Fenech’s own emails were put to him: one describing ElectroGas as “one massive mistake… this project killed me”, another describing 17 Black as “one huge stress, nothing wrong legally but petrified of the consequences coming from the media”. 

Fenech attributed his state at the time to a broken marriage and “addiction”, and said scrutiny is normal on projects of that kind. Cini put that he was petrified of what Caruana Galizia was writing; Fenech resisted the framing and said the addiction, not the reporting, explains the language.

The recordings

Fenech said that at that point he still respected Schembri. He said it was obvious Theuma was recording him, and admitted advising Theuma to delete recordings implicating Schembri, adding that someone else advised him the same. He denied suggesting that Theuma destroy recordings so his own would go too.

Fenech said he received a USB of Theuma’s recordings in 2018 but did not listen to them, kept no copy, and gave it to Schembri. Cini said this was implausible, since on Fenech’s own account Schembri is the man who dragged him into the murder. 

“I was not concerned with the recordings,” Fenech claimed. “I cried when I went home. I think after I informed Keith.”

“So, he’s implicating you – and you decide to pass on money? That you pass on information?” Cini asked. “I didn’t know how to deal with criminals,” Fenech said. “I continued using drugs.”

Fenech’s phone data from before 2019 was completely wiped. He confirmed that he never recorded messages or calls with either Schembri or Theuma – evidence which would back up his claims. Cini put it to him that their involvement was made up; Fenech denied it.

Fenech said he never named Schembri in the recordings because he was loyal, and was “a bridge” between Theuma and Schembri. 

He said Schembri had told him he would send Kenneth Camilleri to shoot Theuma, but he is now convinced this was untrue because it never happened. He described phoning Theuma repeatedly that night and telling him to go on living when Theuma came down holding his son.

Fenech repeatedly explained that gaps and shifts in his police statement were because he “wasn’t comprehensive” because he was still affected by drugs.

Cini put to him directly that his account had been shaped to fit the evidence and that he invented in the statement and continued inventing in the trial. Fenech: “I am here in the trial to tell the truth.”

In a series of damning replies. Fenech confirmed that he did pass on money to Theuma but insisted that it was for drugs. 

 “You’re being surgical on this; you’re not correct,” he said.

Cini closed the day by putting the whole of Fenech’s account back to him as a single sequence.

He returned first to October 2018, when Theuma came to Fenech’s office with a USB of recordings. Fenech said the recordings themselves had not troubled him. What troubled him, he said, was seeing his own name written on a piece of paper, because he realised then that Theuma might try to implicate him.

Cini asked what he had done about it. Fenech said he cried. Asked what he did after that, he said he had a long conversation with Theuma, telling him he had been part of the betrayal. 

Pressed on what steps he took after concluding that a man was preparing to implicate him in the murder of a journalist, Fenech said he did nothing beyond speaking to Schembri and to Theuma. “I didn’t know how to deal with criminals,” he told the court, adding that he carried on burying his head in drugs.

Cini put it to him that a man in his position, then chief executive of the Tumas Group, had made no recording of those conversations, kept no message, taken no screenshot. Fenech said he did not think so.

The prosecutor then set out the sequence he says follows from Fenech’s own testimony: that on Fenech’s version, he is the person who spoke of the plan, the person who knew the price, the person who put the questions to Schembri, the person who put out €50,000, the person who passed on information about the police investigation, and, as Cini put it, the person through whom €450,000 reached Theuma.

“Who are you trying to fool?” Cini asked. “Your fingerprints are all over this.”

“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.