“I froze… I don’t know where we were. We went out for a drink somewhere. He said things that led me to believe that he might have been the one who did it, and I just froze,” Schembri said.

“We burst out crying and then hugged each other and went home.”

“I didn’t speak to anyone…maybe because he was my friend. I made one single mistake: when I started hearing things, I didn’t go straight to the Prime Minister. That was a huge mistake and a heavy cross to bear.”

“I froze because: 1)I had an obligation to keep the government going; 2) He was my friend; His kids were good friends with my kids; Our wives were good friends.”

He was unclear on the timeline of the episode, saying this happened after Fenech was identified as a potential suspect by investigators. This puts it roughly in the months leading up to Theuma and Fenech’s arrest in November 2019.

Schembri, the former chief of staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, revealed the detail during his second day of testimony in the trial against Fenech over the murder. Since his arrest, Fenech and his legal team have claimed that it was Schembri who actually ordered and commissioned the assassination. Schembri outright denied Fenech’s claims.

George Degiorgio, one of the men convicted of carrying out the killing, has also implicated him. Schembri called that “an outright lie” and said he had never even known the men involved, apart from Fenech.

Asked whether he had been at a meeting between Muscat, Fenech and himself at which Theuma was discussed, he answered: “I certainly wasn’t at that meeting.”

Schembri faced intense questioning on his communication with Fenech, particularly the day before the businessman was arrested on board his cabin cruiser on 20th November 2019.

Jurors were presented with screenshots of Signal conversations & calls between Schembri and Fenech.

The day before Fenech’s arrest, Fenech sent Schembri an article revealing that the middleman in the murder had been granted a pardon.

“At about 9:30 pm, I received a call from Joseph Muscat – he told me that the Malta Security Services and Armed Forces informed him that Yorgen was planning to escape. He told me to call him and do all I could to stop him. I called. Yorgen told me that he was planning to go to Sicily for a few days. I told him that for the sake of myself and the Prime Minister, he wouldn’t escape, as it would put the spotlight on me.

The prosecution pressed him on his own vocabulary, noting that he had first said Fenech was going to “escape” and then that he was going to “remove himself from the country”. Schembri said he might have changed the word.

“Yorgen was talking to me strongly, not quite aggressive, but he was asking me: He got the pardon? He got the pardon? He got the pardon? This was already open source information.”

The call, Schembri said, lasted about 24 minutes. “We spoke about a lot of things. He told me he was going to Sicily for two days. I always told him – please for me, do not escape the island,” Schembri said.

“Help me. Don’t leave me alone. Give me support,” Fenech wrote to Schembri in a chat. Two calls later, Schembri replies: “I am giving it to you – you need to be aggressive and fight”. “It’s either one or the other?” Schembri added. Fenech told he has seen the media at the marina and still wants to leave.

“I was trying to calm him down. I was telling him I would help him, even if I couldn’t. He either was going to escape or turn himself in. He needed to fight to clear his name. I knew he wouldn’t take the option to fight,” Schembri explained to the court. Fenech told he has seen the media at the marina but still wants to leave.

“I then went to sleep. At 5 am I was at the gym – and my phone exploded with news about the arrest.”

Schembri outright denied that he provided anyone, particularly Fenech, with information about Theuma’s pardon – and insisted that he was in no way involved in the discussions over whether or not to grant it.

“It was open source by that point” – a phrase Schembri used regularly to explain how Fenech was aware of certain details of the investigation.

Secret Recordings Name Schembri’s Involvement In Passing Information

A secret recording Theuma took of a conversation with Fenech was played in court. The tape, ‘Voice 007’, shows Fenech and Theuma discussing Schembri by name.

The propositions put to him, drawn line by line from the tape, focused on the description of a man positioned between the murder investigation and the men who would later be charged over it.  

Twice on the tape Fenech tells Theuma that Schembri had gone into the fire for him. Asked what that meant, Schembri returned to a formulation he used throughout the day: Fenech was his friend, and wherever he could help him, he had helped him.

The most direct allegation came not from the tape but from Fenech’s own statement to police, which counsel put to him flatly: that Fenech had obtained details of the investigation from Schembri and passed them on to Theuma. Schembri said this was not true.

Jurors were also shown a handwritten note found on Fenech when he was arrested. In it, Theuma sets out that he was the middleman in the killing, names Schembri and Fenech as the two men who paid for it, and says both of them were working to have him killed as well. 

He wrote that he had gathered the evidence so that it would be found even if they killed him.

Asked why Theuma had named him alongside Fenech, Schembri said: “Ask him.” Asked why the note was in Fenech’s possession, he said the same.

“I was the biggest prize in the equation,” he said.

He added that he had read in one outlet that Theuma had said he used the photograph in the ice-cream box to blackmail him. Schembri’s account of that photograph is that it was taken at Castille and that Sandro Craus told him to move closer so that the Prime Minister would also be in frame.

The arrest and ‘lost’ mobile phone

The arrest of Keith Schembri – and the privileges he was afforded as the second-most powerful man in Malta behind the Prime Minister – have been a key focus of testimonies, grabbing headlines over the police’s handling of a potential suspect.

“We were informed that around [the lead investigator] told us to collect all devices indicated to us by Keith Schembri,” PC Michelle Camilleri told the court. This was confirmed by another police officer, PC Mario Azzopardi.

This was on top of other irregularities regarding the arrest, including officers not being told the purpose of the search in advance and the presence of Schembri’s lawyers, Mark Vassallo and Edward Gatt.

This has been a sticking point for jurors. Schembri “lost” his phone the day of the arrest. It was last active at 5 am, around an hour before his arrest. Under questioning, Schembri confirmed that he had workmen at his house from 5:30 am, and that one of them could have taken it.

He only realised it was lost at the police depot. Officers returned to the house and searched again without finding it

“I don’t know where I left it. I know it’s a hard thing for the jurors to believe,” he said.

Hundreds of photographs were taken by police officers that day. One photo showed two mobile phones that officers did not seize.

“Let me explain it clearly to you. I was arrested in the morning, searched and taken to the depot. I then went back with scene of crime officers. By then, my mother, father, Neville Gafa and the nanny were home. Those mobiles belong to them. 100%,” Schembri said.

A search at Schembri’s office in Castille uncovered a detail not previously known. Schembri kept folders containing Daphne’s blog posts, written about him and the government. Those folders contained all articles about the government, including those written by other journalists and media houses.

“I never used laptops or computers – just mobiles,” he said.

The Doctor and The Note

Schembri and Fenech’s mutual doctor, Adrian Vella, has been central the trial and the accusations of Schembri’s links to the murder. According to Vella’s previous statements to police, he went to Schembri’s house, while Fenech was out on police bail, and Schembri passed on a note. That note was given to Fenech, who says it contained a plot to frame Chris Cardona for the murder.

Schembri outright denied involvement – and said that he passed on health-related reports. He said the first time he saw the note was under interrogation. Experts have previously confirmed that Schembri’s fingerprints were not among the 70 found on the note. 

He further revealed that the weekend prior to Fenech’s arrest – Vella informed him that he was visiting Fenech in Gozo “because he needed him”. This was the day after Theuma was arrested. Schembri provided few details beyond that.

The WhatsApp Group: Fenech, Schembri, the Deputy Police Commissioner and MGA CEO

Schembri confirmed that he had been in a WhatsApp group with Fenech and with Silvio Valletta, the deputy police commissioner who oversaw the murder investigation until he was removed from it over his links to Fenech. 

Also in the group, Schembri said, were Joe Cuschieri, then chief executive of the Malta Gaming Authority, and Kenneth Azzopardi, Schembri’s own assistant at Castille. 

He said the group was for jokes, “trying to break up the day”, and confirmed he had seen Valletta at Fenech’s ranch.

He told the court that during the investigation, he and Valletta had agreed between them that the case against Fenech did not fit. “He agreed with me that it made no sense for Yorgen to do something like that.”

Schembri then volunteered an exchange with Valletta from before the assassination.

“I told him, God forbid they kill her – you take all the files and shred them,” he said. “It was a joke.”

Fenech is charged with complicity in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed by a car bomb in October 2017. He denies the charges.

Schembri has hung over this case like a shroud, with Fenech’s defence team pushing a narrative that it was the former chief of staff who ordered the assassination, and not their client. 

Schembri has been criminally charged in three separate but linked cases: leaking information, providing a phantom government job to Theuma, and the 17 Black case, which concerns an offshore structure linked to the ElectroGas deal. 

He denied all allegations in court – and denied passing information to Fenech or to Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman. He saved his key allegations for the end of the sitting.

Schembri told the court he recalled three interactions with Fenech’s lawyers, Charles Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran:

“1) My friend at The Times, who Charles Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran offered money for favourable coverage – they were acquitted on a technicality.

2) Gianluca and Charles went to Johann Cremona and offered him m €200,000 to testify in favour of Yorgen Fenech; the next day they offered him €400,000. This was the week before Cremona testified.

3) Someone called me and told me that Charles and Gianluca wanted to meet me. This was days before I testified in the compilation of evidence. They came to my office two doors away from the Turkish Embassy. When we went outside, they asked me to help Yorgen and testify in his favour. I told them: I had already tried to help him however I could. They left soon after.”

Messages between Schembri and Mercieca sent on 14 June 2020 at 4.24pm were displayed to the court during today’s sitting. Schembri gave evidence in the compilation of evidence on 22 June.

Cremona, a key witness who testified a few days before Fenech, was the first to reveal the meeting and communications between Fenech’s lawyers and Schembri. At the end of his three-day testimony, he produced screenshots of the communications following a combative cross-examination by the defence.

The court demanded he return to testify following the claim of an attempted bribe.

Cremona, when he appeared, refused to answer questions – and appeared anxious, constantly looking at Fenech’s defence team,

“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he said.

“Please, please. I don’t want to. I’m ready to suffer the consequence,” he said. The judge told him he would need to testify.

“Maybe I invented it,” he then said. The Judge said she did not believe him. Cremona was called off the stand.

“Yorgen and I were good friends” – Keith Schembri 

Schembri’s testimony began at 11am and continued through the day. At the outset, the court reminded him that he was not obliged to answer questions touching on those proceedings. Schembri answered most of the questions put to him.

Prosecutor Godwin Cini began his questioning from 2017, when Schembri was chief of staff to Muscat. Schembri described the position as “realising the manifesto on time,” in direct communication with Muscat.

Schembri said he had known Fenech since they were teenagers, and that he was initially closer to Fenech’s brother, Franco. Their relationship picked up again once Schembri entered the political fold and became chief of staff. Fenech was part of the consortium behind the ElectroGas energy project.

“My contact with him was the same as anyone else. I used WhatsApp and Signal for all aspects of my work. It varied: sometimes several times a day, sometimes it would be months,” Schembri said, also confirming that they had dinner at one another’s homes on a few occasions.

“Yes, I went to Fenech’s ranch and yacht. This was after I was in recovery for cancer. A few of us used to meet there and discuss politics, business, that sort of thing. We would have friends, wives, children. We never had businesses together. My father did sell him a plot of land in Mellieha.”

“We were good friends.”

The phantom job and Theuma

Cini then displayed the infamous photograph of Schembri and Theuma at Castille, taken on the day the middleman was given a phantom government job.

Schembri said he could not remember when the photo was taken, but acknowledged it was likely 2017, the year of the general election. He insisted that he had no idea who Theuma was before that meeting.

There were so many people coming to me at that time. It was the election; there were so many people asking for things. He came. I offered him an espresso. We spoke. Then he asked to take a photo, especially with the images of the Prime Minister behind us,” Schembri explained.

He described the “customer care” operation at Castille, a department that handles citizens’ individual requests, often for employment. Those meetings, Schembri said, were organised by Charlene Bianco Farrugia.

“I met Theuma in my office. I knew he was coming because I had a list of everyone coming that day. I don’t think I met him on the stairs,” Schembri said. “This was the first time I met Theuma 100%.”

Theuma’s work contract and payslip, issued by the Housing Maintenance and Embellishment Unit for the post of “messenger driver,” were presented to Schembri. Theuma was issued five payslips from 31 May 2017 onwards.

“I met him another time at the ranch, but I had no idea who he was. I can’t remember if this was before or after the meeting at Castille,” he said. 

In previous testimony, Schembri said there would be “businessmen, politicians and police officers” at the ranch, “people who invest in the country.” He named none of them. He mentioned Silvio Valletta, the former deputy police commissioner, after the prosecution reminded him of previous testimony.

“All I knew of Melvin was that he was a pig for money. How did he get all those properties? I then found out about the money laundering investigation. The Police Commissioner said he could make a feast out of Theuma, but we pushed for the murder investigation as there was the possibility of the recordings.”

“Yorgen disappeared from our circles after Vince Muscat began talking,” he said. Asked why, Schembri replied: “Because of addiction.” He said Fenech never told him what had caused it.

Caruana Galizia, 17 Black, Panama and Egrant

Cini then turned to the murder. Schembri said he found out about the assassination in his office with Muscat and the director of communications, Kurt Farrugia. He said he had never met Caruana Galizia personally, despite how much she had written about him.

“Joseph turned to me and said: we have to catch the people who did this,” he said.

“Her writing never impacted me per se. More my family, I would say. Everything she wrote about me, I feel I could take it,” he added, referencing her stories on the Panama Papers and his cancer diagnosis. Schembri confirmed that he had once issued a strong denial and opened a libel suit against her.

Schembri denied discussing her articles with Fenech. However, he said that on one trip to the United States for treatment, which they took together, Fenech mentioned some of the articles she had written.

He was specifically asked about her reference to 17 Black in a blog post and whether he had ever discussed it with Fenech. He first said he had, but not in great detail.

The post, “17 Black: Dubai,” was shown to the court. Fenech was named in its comments. Schembri said he could not remember whether they discussed that particular post. He then said he “definitely didn’t discuss it with Yorgen.”

“When I became a politician, I opened a trust at BOV and placed all my assets in there. I was informed that the details of the trust were leaked. I wasn’t given guarantees that the data would be protected. So, I decided to open a trust in New Zealand. I then needed a company to invest in the trust,” Schembri said, in an account offered in explanation of the offshore structures on which he faces criminal charges.

That company, Schembri confirmed, was Tillgate, opened in Panama with Nexia BT in 2015. 17 Black, which is owned by Fenech, is listed as a main target client. He said 17 Black would be “the main target client when I left politics” and that the business would focus on “recycling.”

Questions then turned to ElectroGas. “Remember that both Fenech and I are charged in connection with the case,” Schembri said. He confirmed the details of the deal, and how Siemens, SOCAR and a Maltese company comprising Fenech, the Gasans and Paul Apap Bologna took over the project.

Cini referenced a Reuters article about the project, and how Schembri and then-energy minister Konrad Mizzi acquired companies in Panama within the same time frame. Both companies listed 17 Black, owned by Fenech, and Macbridge, owned by Tang Zhaomin, the mother-in-law of Chen Cheng, a negotiator involved in multi-million euro Enemalta deals.

“What do you know about Egrant?” Cini asked. “I know a lot,” Schembri replied. “It was just a shell company for no one.”

Schembri and Leaks from the Investigation:

Schembri was then asked about the investigation into the murder and the coordination of international assistance. He confirmed that he was present for “high-ranking” meetings on the investigation involving the police, the attorney general, the Malta Security Services, Muscat and then-justice minister Owen Bonnici.

He said Keith Arnaud, the lead investigator, requested the meetings. Previous testimony has established that Valletta started the meetings before Arnaud took over.

Schembri was pressed on the raids and the arrest of the three hitmen convicted of carrying out the murder. Previous testimony, including from the hitmen themselves, has indicated they were tipped off. Theuma has alleged that Schembri was the source.

“I never informed anyone,” Schembri said, before confirming that he did inform Saviour Balzan, the Malta Today owner, the day before the raid. Schembri said this was because Malta Today was going to reveal that a raid would take place.

“I didn’t tell Theuma. I never mentioned the date or times with Fenech. For sure not.”

Schembri confirmed that Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, Arnaud and the Malta Security Services kept him informed of updates.

He said the MSS personally provided him with information on the trips of Fenech and of his secretary, Charlene Bianco Farrugia, “including their destination and seat number.” Schembri said he was provided this information because they were considered “high-risk,” and that he was never told outright at the time that Fenech was a suspect.

He confirmed that these updates began after Vince Muscat began speaking to the police.

“I thought: what’s wrong with them going abroad? I never heard anything about Fenech,” he said.

“All I knew of Melvin was that he was a pig for money. How did he get all those properties? I then found out about the money laundering investigation. The Police Commissioner said he could make a feast out of Theuma, but we pushed for the murder investigation as there was the possibility of the recordings.”

“Yorgen disappeared from our circles after Vince Muscat began talking,” he said. Asked why, Schembri replied: “Because of addiction.” He said Fenech never told him what had caused it.

Vince Muscat, Kenneth Camilleri and the pardon

The next stop on the timeline was April 2018, when Vince Muscat, one of the hitmen, started speaking to the police and requested a pardon. In those meetings, Muscat named Theuma. Fenech and Theuma were informed. Theuma began recording Fenech soon after.

“It was agreed that even if Muscat got a pardon, his evidence would result in nothing,” he said.

In recordings, both Fenech and Theuma allege that they received information on the investigation from Schembri. Schembri denied passing on information under questioning.

“My communication with Fenech didn’t change,” he said.

Schembri denied outright that he ordered Kenneth Camilleri to address an issue with Theuma via Cremona.

“I had no contact with Kenneth Camilleri in 2018. I never asked him to meet or speak to anyone,” he said.

Schembri claimed that following Fenech’s arrest, Camilleri asked him for €30,000. “How could I give him anything when all my assets were frozen?” he said. 

He said he knew Cremona as Fenech’s business partner, and that he had spoken to him about assistance with a Malta Gaming Authority licence. Schembri confirmed that the pair met at Castille at Fenech’s request.

“I offered him a coffee. We spoke. When he was leaving, Johann asked me if I spoke to Yorgen. I don’t know why, I hadn’t spoken to him for a while,” he said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In those photographs, two mobile phones were spotted.

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

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

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

Episode by episode, we take you through every major chapter of the case against the businessman accused of masterminding the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, as it unfolds.

Images: Sebastian Tanti Burlo and Anna Calleja
Script: Michaela Camilleri
Hosts: Michaela Camilleri and Martina Camilleri
Producer & Editor: Julian Bonnici

The series is in Maltese with English subtitles. Discover the entire series below (also available on Spotify):

EPISODE 1: THE CASE AGAINST YORGEN FENECH AND TESTIMONY OF KEITH ARNAUD

EPISODE 2: EYEWITNESSES, POLICE OFFICERS, AND FORESENIC EXPERTS ON THE DAY DAPHNE DIED

EPISODE 3: THE HITMEN TESTIFY – VINCE MUSCAT, ALFRED DEGIORGIO AND GEORGE DEGIORGIO

He also claimed that Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran, another defence lawyer, met Keith Schembri the night before the former OPM chief of staff testified in the compilation of evidence against Fenech.

“You want to laugh? I’ll show you,” he said as he unfolded a paper from his pocket. It showed a screenshot Schembri sent, showing Mercieca sending Schembri a selfie. “All while his client is in prison,” he added.

The photo was a selfie of Mercieca with his ex-partner’s uncle with the message “awguri”.

“He’s taking the piss out of his client. They even paid people in the media to shit on me.”

“The note has been in my pocket the whole time during the trial. Also, if you want to know, Gianluca Caruana Curran went to go meet Keith Schembri at his office in Floriana near the Turkish embassy,” he said.

“The defence want to destroy me, weaken my testimony.”

The incident came after Gianella de Marco was asking him questions on communications with Kenneth Cammileri. Mercieca laughed at his response, and it triggered the massive response from Cremona.

“They destroyed me. Everything. You think you’re so smart,” he told them.

Judge Edwina Grima took the incident seriously, trying to calm down the combative interaction between the witness and the defence. She paused his testimony, and Cremona was sent home.

Earlier, questioning focused on the relationship between Cremona, Schembri and the OPM security official.

Messages were shown in court where GDM tried to imply they were close friends, even a “team” and coordinated their testimonies.

“We wouldn’t be called to testify – because Arnaud wants [Theuma’s] mother,” he told Schembri in a message. 

“I didn’t like Arnaud. The way he acted with me wasn’t great,” Cremona explained in court. 

“How could I coordinate testimony when I didn’t even know that there were recordings of what I said?”

“I hoped Keith would help me. He was mentioned in everything”

The following communication, which was shown and has been blocked from publication pending further testimony, fueled the outburst.

Cremona repeated his earlier line and told the court that many of the statements he made in the recordings were “bluff” or exaggerations intended solely to calm down an increasingly paranoid Theuma. He stated that Theuma made his life “a misery for a year and a half.”

Cremona testified that Yorgen Fenech once suggested framing former Minister Chris Cardona for the murder during a meeting at a Żebbuġ ranch, though Cremona asserted this framing plot was entirely fabricated.

Explaining the visit, Cremona said they had bought pastizzi and brought them to Fenech, who was living at the ranch “like an animal” due to marital problems, staying only 20 minutes to help pack his clothes.

He  also confirmed exchanging Signal messages with former OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri about lead investigator Keith Arnaud. Confronted with chats saying “let’s not go up to testify” and “we won’t let him [Arnaud]”, he admitted he turned to Schembri out of panic because he had “nobody else to talk to.”

Cross-examination by defence lawyer Giannella De Marco focused heavily on Kenneth Camilleri, a security officer at Castille for then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Cremona acknowledged that Camilleri introduced him to the wider narrative post-murder by asking Cremona to drive him to Zurrieq to meet Theuma.

Towards the end of his direct testimony, an emotional Cremona addressed Judge Edwina Grima directly, demanding an investigation into how audio recordings featuring his voice were leaked to blogger Simon Mercieca, stating his children were being taunted with them.

In one recording, Theuma expressed intent to go to Castille to demand €100,000 from Schembri, claiming “Keith will shit himself.”  In another exchange, Theuma claimed he had recorded several key people, including Keith Schembri.

The defence highlighted recorded claims that Theuma boasted of having influenced the former police commissioner, alleging that the commissioner had listened to the recordings before Theuma’s arrest and that advance information was leaked regarding police raids.

Theuma alleged that Edwin Brincat (il-Ġojja) paid €5,000 of a €16,000 sum to the police commissioner so he could travel. However, this has been denied by all parties as Theuma inflating connections out of fear of Fenech and Schembri.

In an agitated excerpt, Theuma swore repeatedly and said, “Come and see who you engaged… He shouldn’t have killed her,” which Cremona confirmed referred to Yorgen Fenech ordering the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Theuma was recorded saying Fenech would “never be free of them” (referring to hitmen George and Alfred Degiorgio). Theuma said in the tapes: “Yorgen engaged them and dragged me into it… Yorgen didn’t realise that if they were caught, they would blackmail him for the rest of his life.”

Theuma recalled Fenech telling him that “power” and “strength” belonged to them but complained that Fenech had abandoned him when things got tough:

“When they still hadn’t killed her, he kept telling me, ‘Go speak to him…’ Now you’re avoiding me, Yorgen.”

Theuma said in recordings: “Thank God I took photos of all those messages, and recorded him so much.”

Theuma said he was considering “making a deal” to reveal everything to investigators. Cremona was heard in the tape urging him to remain calm and warning him: “He [Fenech] can’t escape from this story. He would like to, but he can’t,” Theuma told him.

Discussions also touched on €400,000 allegedly required to ensure the hitmen wouldn’t expose Cardona, and references were made to lawyer Arthur Azzopardi holding around €300,000 for hitman Vince Muscat (il-Koħħu).

In multiple excerpts, payments to the imprisoned Degiorgio brothers were discussed, with Theuma remarking, “They love killing, they love money.”

The recordings detailed ongoing financial pressure from convicted hitmen, who demanded continuous monthly payouts (€2,000 each).

The trial began with video-link testimony from former Europol forensic expert Yulia Toma, who detailed digital extractions from devices seized from Melvin Theuma’s inner circle. While data from one iPhone was unlocked, attempts on a second device failed due to system limits. 

In one played excerpt, Cremona was heard instructing Theuma on how to set his messaging apps to auto-delete after 30 minutes to destroy potential evidence.

The recordings also detailed payments of €1,000 per week to the Degiorgio brothers, funded directly by Fenech. Throughout the tapes, Theuma expressed deep frustration over the disparity between Fenech’s wealth and his own vulnerability, threatening to “bring him down” if police ever raided his home.

Theuma also told Cremona that Fenech was “petrified” when hitman Vince Muscat (il-Koħħu) began negotiating for a presidential pardon, adding that figures in Castille—specifically Keith Schembri—were terrified of Fenech breaking down.

Cremona described to the court finding an envelope pushed under his office door, containing a handwritten note stating that Vince Muscat had not testified against Theuma and would not accept a 12-year deal. 

He said he was at Portomaso when Theuma called, went back and found it, and showed it to Theuma. Asked how it got there, he said he did not know. 

Repeated Claims of “Bluffs” and Inventions

The hearing saw Cremona walk through the covert recordings page by page, with Prosecutor Godwin Cini reading specific passages before asking Cremona to explain what he meant and to whom he was referring.

At its core, Cremona stuck to a consistent line of defence throughout the day. He claimed he repeatedly invented or amplified names, high-level contacts, and reassurances simply to keep the increasingly volatile Theuma calm, maintain his trust, and, critically, keep himself out of the crosshairs.

“I was always dragging other people into the story,” Cremona told the court.

Among the specific claims made on the recordings and Cremona’s explanations under oath:

• On tape, Cremona claimed “these people pay the magistrate” and asked, “who knows what was promised to her.” In court, he clarified this referred to the Degiorgio brothers’ attempts to secure bail, dismissing his own recorded words as a complete “bluff.”
  
• Cremona claimed in the recording that he knew police were preparing to seize Fenech’s phone at Gatwick Airport in the UK. In court, he admitted this was another “bluff.”
  
• He claimed former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar had met with former OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri to ask for a favour. He again testified this was fabricated.
  
• Cremona claimed on tape to be in regular contact with figures like Kenneth Camilleri.
  

Cremona was also pressed on inconsistencies in his previous testimony. Having claimed the day prior that he never discussed the murder case with Fenech, prosecutors confronted him with an exchange where Fenech had sent him a photograph of il-Baġri, a figure linked to the case.

Pressed on the contradiction, Cremona replied: “I don’t know. I don’t know why you don’t believe me.”

Power Outages Stall Proceedings

Beyond the evidence presented, today’s trial was disrupted by power outages at the Valletta law courts.

An initial outage forced a 30-minute suspension during the morning session. Later in the afternoon, a complete blackout at 2:35 PM stalled proceedings for over an hour before engineers resolved the switchboard issue and power was fully restored around 3:20 PM.

Cremona, who testified today in the trial against Fenech, corroborated the murder plot, explaining that Theuma had detailed to him how Fenech ordered the crime and paid the deposit and the final fee, matching timelines outlined by other testimony – including that of convicted hitman Vince Muscat – which pointed to election-time in 2017.

Cremona is a friend and business partner of Fenech through BestPlay, which rented office space in Qormi from Theuma.

Cremona recounted how Theuma had once “suddenly said ‘they betrayed me'”, when Cremona asked who, Theuma named Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri.

“Melvin first told me that Yorgen and Keith [Schembri] had got him to organise the murder. He was depressed. He was scared he was going to get arrested,” Cremona said

“At first he said both, and then would mention Yorgen only.”

He said that in 2019 Theuma told him it was all Fenech, and that Fenech was using Schembri as a threat. Theuma did not have direct contact with Schembri, Cremona said, but still used to say that both had betrayed him.

“Theuma came to my office every day. I would arrive at 7 am, and he would be there, outside my door. He was scared… He continued coming right until the moment he was arrested,” Cremona said, adding that Theuma wanted him to pass messages to Fenech, his business partner.

Cremona said Theuma would ask him to call Fenech to request money to pass on to the Degiorgios. He said he knew Theuma was the middleman, and that the money was going towards significant expenses such as legal fees.

Cremona confirmed that Theuma told him he was passing money to hitmen George and Alfred while they were in prison following their arrest over the murder, through their brother Mario, who was later charged with money laundering. “In those instances, he only spoke about Fenech,” Cremona said under questioning from Prosecutor Godwin Cini.

Cremona confirmed that he informed Yorgen that Theuma was recording him. Cremona could not remember when this happened. In his previous testimony, he said it was in 2018, but today could not be certain.

“I still wanted to be close to Theuma, so at least I can control the outcome. I was worried for my business,” he said.

“When Yorgen and I met, we always spoke about business. I never spoke to him about the case.”

Cremona mentioned that, out of the blue, Fenech messaged describing someone as “the middleman between the Degiorgio brothers and Cardona.  

Cremona had previously testified that the photo showed one man (“il-Baġri”); today he said it showed two men, one of them Chris Cardona. The prosecution hammered the change, but  Cremona insisted nobody had asked before, that he’s hiding nothing, and that he’s “putting his life in danger.”

Recordings Show Cremona Tried To Get Theuma To Delete Fenech Tapes

A recording between Cremona and Theuma was played in the court. Theuma took the recording; Cremona was unaware. Recordings were repeatedly hard to hear, and the gist of the conversation was highlighted in the prosecution’s questions.

Throughout the conversation, Cremona reassured a panicked Theuma on how to make a money-laundering investigation into him disappear. Previous testimonies have heard how police used the money laundering investigation as an inroad to arrest Theuma for the murder, and secure his evidence box.

Cremona walked Theuma through fabricating a story of a backdated loan to explain undeclared sums that would be presented to ‘Raymond’ – confirmed to be Raymond Aquilina, a former police inspector who has been separately charged in a bribery case with Fenech.

Cremona suggested buying Raymond Aquilina a car. On tape, Cremona describes fixing his own undeclared money by producing a backdated €70,000 loan document through his auditor. However, on the stand, he said that he had never actually spoken to Aquilina and confirmed things on tape he knew nothing about.

Cremona repeatedly told Theuma to route everything through “Sur Ray” and not to make contact with Yorgen Fenech. On tape, he says outright it’s because if the FIAU sees Fenech, “Yorgen Fenech gets named and they implicate him as much as possible.” On the stand he reframed this as trying to manage Fenech’s depression and his own exhaustion.

Cremona insisted to the court this was all made up to calm down Theuma. Yet, in the recordings, Cremona expressly pressures Theuma to delete all his recordings, especially those with Fenech. Cremona framed it as reassuring Theuma rather than covering for himself or Fenech.

On tape, they discuss there being “not enough power in the secret service,” and that the secret service “isn’t Keith Schembri’s.

In the conversation, the pair also discuss the money being passed onto the Degiorgios through their brother, Mario. 

Melvin Theuma & Kenneth Cammilleri, The OPM Official

Cremona told the court that his involvement began in May or June 2018, when he received a call from Kenneth Camilleri, an OPM official and family friend, asking him to meet at 8 pm. They met at Camilleri’s home in Bulebel, where Camilleri said he wanted to speak to Theuma.

The two then went to Theuma’s home, where Theuma was waiting in the road.

“Kenneth spoke with Theuma alone for about 15-20 minutes. Afterwards, Kenneth made a 2-minute phone call from his mobile. He went back to Theuma, then returned to the car. I wasn’t in their conversation,” Cremona said, adding that Camilleri never told him what they had discussed or why he wanted to meet Theuma.

The next morning, Cremona found Camilleri waiting outside his office. Theuma arrived 30 to 45 minutes later, asking for Camilleri, and the two spoke in the garage’s coffee area while Cremona stayed in his office. “It looked like they were having a small argument. I didn’t hear anything, though. Melvin was swearing,” he said.

On another day, Cremona said that Theuma called him in Valletta, asking to meet and requesting Camilleri’s number. Reluctant to pass it on, Cremona instead called Camilleri, who said he was at Castille and available.

The three met at a coffee shop in front of Parliament, though Theuma and Camilleri spoke in private.

“I did hear Melvin tell Kenneth something about ‘arranging the bail’ and the Degiorgio brothers,” Cremona said. “At that time, I still hadn’t realised that Melvin was involved in this case.”

‘I tried to convince Theuma not to go to the police. I was worried about my business with Fenech.’

Cremona said that by the end of 2018, Theuma began telling him he wanted to speak to the police. “Whenever Fenech didn’t answer, he got more and more desperate,” he said. “When he did answer, he would get calmer and start acting more normal. He would change for the better and feel more comfortable.”

“I tried to convince him not to go to the police. I was worried for my business,” he said.

In previous statements to police, Cremona said Fenech would tell Theuma: “as long as we’re together, they can kiss our [redacted by prosecutor]”.

“When I spoke in favour of Yorgen, he would get angry with me. When I spoke against Yorgen, he got more comfortable. With Keith, he only ever asked me to call Kenneth,” Cremona said.

As more news emerged – particularly as Vince Muscat began speaking – Cremona said Theuma became scared he would be killed or that everything would be pinned on him, and was convinced he was being followed.

“I would mention names that weren’t involved in the murder just to calm him down. It would make him feel better. He also would throw out names,” Cremona said.

“On One News, there was a Maltese person named as potentially involved in the murder. I told him to calm him down,” Cremona said. The public inquiry found that the Office of the Prime Minister pushed this narrative after the murder.

Cremona said he was aware that Theuma was also in contact with Edwin il-Gojja’ Brincat, who had spoken with then-Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar.

Cremona claimed that Theuma had said he was discussing a potential pardon through Brincat, and that Cutajar was aware of the recordings. Cremona said this was after May 2019.

“I never saw Melvin or spoke with Cutajar. The only thing I know is that Melvin received a call informing him about the raids. I don’t know who called him,” Cremona said, later adding that he had got this information from Cutajar via Brincat.

Keith Schembri Calls

Cremona said that in September 2019 he received a call from Keith Schembri asking to meet at Castille – the first time the two had met. After discussing the gaming industry, Schembri asked whether he “had spoken to Yorgen”. Cremona said he had not, and Schembri looked worried. The meeting lasted about an hour. “He didn’t mention why he asked or why he was so worried,” Cremona said.

A week later, Schembri contacted him on Signal with the same question and continued to reach out for the next month. Cremona said he was in contact with Fenech at the time, but only on business.

“Once I asked [Yorgen] about it – he told me not to worry about it,” he said. “Neither of them ever mentioned what it was about. I assume that Yorgen and Keith started speaking directly after.”

He said Theuma never claimed to have recorded Schembri, only Fenech, and that at that point Theuma was only mentioning Fenech.

‘I lost everything’

Cremona confirmed that he had told Fenech he was recording him, though he could not say when. In previous testimony he had put it in 2018, but said he could not now be certain. “I still wanted to keep Theuma close, so at least I can control the outcome. I was worried for my business,” he said.

He said that when he and Fenech met, they only ever discussed business. However, Cini referred him to earlier testimony in which he said he had spoken to Fenech about the murder before his arrest, after a Times of Malta report linked a businessman to the killing. Cremona confirmed that it had been a phone call but said he could not remember what was discussed.

“I’m angry he recorded me. I lost everything. I can’t go to the bank. To the auditor. I can’t even open a convenience shop. He had no reason to record me,” he said.

Cremona said he had tried to stop Theuma from going to the police for his own benefit, because of his business with Fenech. “Yorgen tried to get me to stop Theuma from going to the police. Fenech was my partner; we were in business together, I had respect for him,” he said.

“I’m not angry with Yorgen. He didn’t bring me into this. He didn’t tell me to calm down, Theuma. I did it for the business I had with Yorgen.”

Cutajar faced questions about his meetings and messages with Brincat before Theuma’s arrest; an intercepted phone call between Brincat and himself, taken the day before the former testified; and a reference in Theuma’s secret recordings to his securing a pardon against a fee.

Meetings With Edwin Brincat

The bulk of his testimony was focused on his episodes with Edwin ‘Il-Gojja’ Brincat, who finished testifying earlier in the day.

Cutajar admitted that he personally met Brincat – at his home – around May 2019, using a traffic fine as a pretext. In those meetings, he asked about Theuma’s tape. Cutajar tried to frame it as an ordinary investigative initiative.

He was evasive on details like whether he knew Brincat was coming, and on when – or whether – he told the magistrate, secret services and investigators.

“I don’t remember,” he said.

Cutajar confirmed chats between himself and Brincat. The first message, sent on Monday 21st October 2019, includes Brincat sending over the now-infamous fine.

“Ok, I’ll take a look and get back to you,” he replies.

On Wednesday 23 October, a deferment of the case, requested by Brincat, was confirmed by Cutajar.

The next message, on Saturday 9th November, a few days before Theuma and Brincat’s arrest, Cutajar asks: “Hi, you’re alone.”

The following Tuesday and Wednesday, Brincat sent messages to Cutajar: “5 pm – ok?” Theuma and Brincat were arrested on the Thursday.

“I continue chasing after him. He was trying to avoid me. I was trying my hardest to discover where these tapes were,” Cutajar told the court.

Inspector Nicholas Vella testified that he told Cutajar on 5th November that the raids were set for 16 November; on 12th November, Cutajar and Brincat arranged to meet; on 13th November, Theuma stayed off work and began clearing out his belongings.

The defence’s clear implication was that there was a tip-off. Cutajar’s response was: ” He cleared out nothing, because everything was found”.

Cutajar maintained that he had informed the investigators and a magistrate about his contacts with Brincat of his own accord. The defence put a different sequence to him: that the Malta Security Service had caught him, informed Magistrate Vella, and summoned him to the depot at night, where he was confronted with the chat in his own office.

On the recording, the defence noted, Cutajar himself refers to handing over the information only after he was caught.

The exchange sharpened until defence lawyer Gianella de Marco told Cutajar directly: “This is not a question of politics. You are corrupt.” The judge intervened to stop her.

Cutajar held his ground, insisting the police had solved a case built around a bomb that left no trace of evidence and had managed to bring it this far.

The intercepted phone call with Edwin Brincat before testimony

Cutajar said he could not remember whether he had spoken to anyone about the case before he testified in July 2020. He was asked if he had spoken to Brincat in June 2020. He said he could not remember.

An intercepted phone call between Cutajar and Brincat, recorded in June 2020, the day before Brincat’s testimony in the compilation of evidence, was played in court. The tape had previously been played in court in Brincat’s testimony but blocked from reporting before Cutajar testified.

In the tape, Brincat calls Cutajar to discuss the outline of their meetings, including how many times they met, what was discussed, and how they knew each other. The conversation, 15 minutes long, has been subject to intense scrutiny, with the defence insisting that it was evidence of collusion on sworn statements.

In the call, the two discussed how many times they had met, agreeing to say “twice” rather than three, which Brincat said would be hard to explain, and touched on how they knew each other and what had been discussed.

At one point Cutajar is heard saying “ok, we’re agreed, bye bye”; at another, the summons is described as the thing that “saved” him. To each passage put to him, including one where he appears to tell Brincat what to say about the raids, Cutajar’s answer was the same: he had been bluffing, and had never passed on information about the investigation or the raids.

Cutajar said he could not remember when the conversation took place. He did confirm it did happen. At the time, he said, he was no longer Police Commissioner.

This phone call and other conversations were the focus of intense scrutiny by the defence.

“Have you lied under oath?” Gianella de Marco as she opened the cross-examination.

“I’m not denying the phone call took place. I don’t remember when it happened,” he said.

Confronted, Cutajar’s only answer is that he “forgot the phone call.”

Theuma’s recordings: Cutajar & The Pardon

Cutajar also faced intense scrutiny after his name was mentioned in secret recordings between Melvin Theuma and Johann Cremona, a business partner of Yorgen Fenech and a tenant of Theuma’s.

In those tapes, there is a reference to Theuma, through Brincat, securing a pardon from Cutajar for a fee of 15,000 euros. This, Theuma and others have said, was never the truth, but rather an attempt by Theuma to flex his connections to Fenech, even if they were non-existent, amid fears that he could be killed.

Cutajar resoundingly denied the claim. He said that he did not even have the power to secure a pardon. This is correct – and the power to issue the pardon rests with the President at the Prime Minister’s request following advice from key authorities like the police and attorney general.

Cutajar’s Role in the Murder Investigation

At the start of his testimony, Cutajar stated that his lawyer, Ezekiel Psaila, had told him that he would not be able to answer all questions, given that he’s subject to magisterial inquiry concerning leaks from the police in the investigation.

He repeatedly leaned on that, along with the loss of his personal notes and I don’t remember”s, especially on dates and on who told whom what.

Cutajar traced his involvement, as Police Commissioner, in the investigation from October 2017 onwards, including the hitmen’s arrest, Muscat’s request for a pardon, and the emergence of Theuma’s recordings and the subsequent money-laundering investigation.

He confirmed that he attended two update meetings with then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and the Attorney General. These meetings took place after Silvio Valletta, who had begun them, was removed from the case by court order.

The court noted at the outset that Brincat has pending legal proceedings against him on an unrelated matter, and that he could decline to answer questions touching on them.

“He came to tell me that Vince Muscat was speaking to police. He told me he was involved in the murder. I was shocked. He started crying, going crazy. I kept on asking him: what did you do?” Brincat explained.

“Melvin told me that Yorgen told him il-Kohhu was speaking. He told me he was the middleman, who passed on the money and found the killers for Yorgen.”

“As far as I know, Melvin got the money from Yorgen. Melvin told me he got nothing from it.”

Brincat, a car dealer and horse-racing bookmaker, has known Theuma since Theuma was as young as 16 or 17. Theuma was one of around four people who helped Brincat at the bookmaker, and also helped him with the horses and, on one occasion, a car imported from Japan.

“Our relationship was good. We were friends in every sense of the word,” he said.

“Before the murder, he was normal, jokey. After, he would find me five times a day. I used to find him outside my door. He wasn’t behaving normally; he would show me articles and ask me about them,” Brincat said. Prompted with his earlier testimony, Brincat confirmed that Theuma had suicidal thoughts during this period.

Fenech and Theuma, he said, were also good friends, with Theuma telling him he sometimes travelled abroad with Fenech.

Asked by the judge why Theuma passed the money to the Degiorgios, Brincat said Theuma told him it was “to make a bomb”. “To carry out a killing,” the judge put to him. “That’s what it amounts to,” Brincat replied.

Brincat told jurors that Theuma spoke of €150,000 passed from Fenech to the Degiorgios – he believed after the murder – as well as weekly sums which Theuma said he paid out of his own pocket to a member of the Degiorgio family. Brincat said he believed these payments were made so they would not expose him.

“Melvin wanted to go to the police and get a pardon. He told me he had started recording Fenech. He knew whoever spoke first would get a pardon.”

Brincat also recounted that Theuma told him Fenech had said Muscat’s pardon request “had already gone through Cabinet” – something which, Brincat testified, made him realise that such information could not circulate through Cabinet without people knowing.

Brincat told jurors that he tried to dissuade Theuma from going to the police.

“I told him not to go. The people he was dealing with, like Yorgen, had contacts with big people. Everyone in Malta knows. I didn’t think police would believe him. I didn’t even believe that he had these tapes – and he’s just inventing things so I stop convincing him not to go,” he told jurors.

Brincat said he also advised Theuma to say Fenech’s name aloud while recording him, so that anyone listening to the tapes – including the police – would know who was speaking.

Brincat also corroborated the ‘phantom job’ story – and that Fenech had told Theuma to go to Castille to secure the job.

“Theuma used to get money from Yorgen. One time, he couldn’t get hold of Fenech and said he was going to go to Castille. I asked him whether he had spoken to Keith Schembri. He mentioned that Schembri was involved in some way, but also said he never spoke to Schembri himself. I thought he was crazy. He even told me he wanted to go speak to the Archbishop.”

“Melvin always told me that Fenech mentioned Schembri, so he assumed he was involved. He never spoke to Schembri about the murder or about money. I told him he shouldn’t go to Keith as he would get arrested straight away.”

Asked, at the close of the prosecution’s examination, who commissioned and paid for Theuma to act as the broker so that the murder would be carried out, Brincat answered: “It is Yorgen Fenech, from what Melvin told me.”

Edwin Brincat and Lawrence Cutajar: Meetings And Calls

A key highlight of Brincat’s testimony was his interactions with former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar – whom Brincat had saved in his phone as ‘MRC’, for Marsa Racing Club.

The number of times the two met was itself a point of contention. Brincat initially described two meetings before Theuma’s arrest, but under cross-examination conceded there may have been two more: one in which he delivered a car battery to Cutajar’s home, and another in which Cutajar checked whether Brincat had obtained the information he wanted.

The first meeting, Brincat said, was held at Cutajar’s home by him e to complain about a wrongly issued citation for a car he was not driving. At that meeting, Cutajar told Brincat words to the effect of: “If I help you with this, you’ll need to help me with something.”

Brincat testified that Cutajar told him he already knew Theuma was involved in the Caruana Galizia case, that Theuma had recordings, and asked Brincat to find out from Theuma where the tapes were kept, promising that not even Theuma would know Brincat had told them.

Brincat told him: “I knew nothing. I was holding Melvin back from the police. If I didn’t want him to have anything to do with the police, do you think I was going to pass the tapes on to the Commissioner?”

The prosecution played an intercept of a conversation between Brincat and Cutajar in court. It was taken on 14th June, the day before Brincat testified in the compilation of evidence in the case.

Details of the intercept will be revealed after Cutajar testifies.

The prosecution also presented a WhatsApp conversation between the pair. The first message, which included a photo of Brincat’s fine, was sent on Thursday 17th October 2019. The issue around the fine was settled on 23rd October.

On Saturday 9 November, 9th Novembermessaged Brincat to see if he was alone and available for a call in five minutes. This was followed by a series of further messages on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 Novembe13th Novemberng a potential 5 pm meeting. Brincat said he ignored those requests for calls and meetings, explaining he was trying to avoid Cutajar precisely because of the tapes.

On Thursday 14th November, Brincat was arrested as part of the money laundering investigation. Brincat insisted that they were not informed about the arrest in advance.

Yorgen Fenech’s defence team focused on Brincat’s relationship with Cutajar. The defence referred to a recording between Johann Cremona and Melvin Theuma in which the pair discussed Brincat paying €15,000 to secure Theuma’s pardon and telling Cutajar to go on a cruise.

Brincat denied that any such payment ever took place. He told the court that when he confronted Theuma about the claim, Theuma admitted it was a lie. “Melvin told me he just said it to show he had power and connections, even if it wasn’t the case,” he said.

“I knew there were these tapes. I never knew what was in them,” he said, adding that when Theuma played him a USB of the recordings at his home, the audio was largely inaudible, and he told Theuma the police would have the equipment to decipher it.

It was also put to Brincat that he had coached Theuma’s police statement before his arrest and helped him write a letter to Fenech and Schembri, both of which he denied, saying he had only told Theuma that police would play him the tapes and he should answer according to them.

Brincat also faced questions on Theuma’s pardon. He said he feared Theuma would never get one – and that Fenech and Schembri’s influence would see the murder pinned on Theuma instead. “They are powerful people. You don’t know what contacts they have,” he said.

However, Brincat regularly stressed that while Theuma had got it into his head that Fenech and Schembri acted as one, Theuma had always told him that he never dealt or spoke with Schembri about the murder itself – and only believed Schembri was the source of information Fenech passed on from the investigation.