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.

Otherwise, Friday’s session was largely focused on evidence. A Europol bomb expert delivered the forensic backbone of the case, along with a chain of bank, data-extraction, and transcription witnesses establishing the exhibits.

The Prison Money

Two witnesses traced how cash reached the jailed hitmen. Lawrence Pace (“il-Lolly”) said Melvin Theuma asked him, in 2019, how to send “a hundred each” to the families of the imprisoned Degiorgio brothers and Vince Muscat.

Theuma passed him roughly €300 at a time, three or so times, at a Ħamrun shop, which Pace routed through to the Degiorgios’ brother Mario at Joseph Brincat’s White Stars bar in Marsa.

Brincat corroborated it: €200-€300 passed perhaps five times, roughly weekly, “about €100 each” for the three, always against a receipt. The arrangement allegedly collapsed when Mario failed to produce a receipt for a clothing request. 

Separately, Pace described a stranger episode: while Muscat was still free, he twice drove Pace to a Siġġiewi square to hand roughly €400 through a car window to an unknown recipient, receiving only a receipt in return; money Pace said came from Muscat. 

Under cross-examination, the defence drew out that Muscat “had a gambling habit” and debts, and floated that the Siġġiewi handovers were for a garage rental.

Europol Expert Describes Bomb

The Europol explosives expert, appointed by Magistrate Anthony Vella in November 2017, told the jury the device was TNT, 300-400g, in a solid casing, placed beneath the driver’s seat and detonated from inside the car; the metal skin pushed outward, damage radiating from a single epicentre. 

He put the lethal zone at 65cm from the blast centre, “more than enough to cause death of a person sitting on the driver’s seat”.

He further explained how a GSM relay controller – a simple SMS-triggered switch, the kind used for garage doors – can detonate a device remotely.

Theuma’s Bank Trail

A BNF Bank analyst presented Theuma’s records, including a commercial lease between Theuma and Bestplay Gaming Ltd: registered at the Tumas Group’s Portomaso office and signed by Fenech, Johann Cremona and Theuma; plus rent cheques and receipts.

They also presented a Caruana Galizia family civil warrant of seizure against Theuma and Fenech.

Notably, the bank’s relationship manager had recommended closing Theuma’s account over his “bad repute” as an accused in the assassination, and refused a pardon-related cheque deposit.

Digital Extraction Expert Testifies 

Alvin Cardona, the court’s digital extraction expert, also testified. 

Cardona confirmed he photocopied documents including the page bearing the Theuma-Schembri photograph, made forensic copies of the recordings, and prepared appendices cataloguing the file types, their durations and which was which. 

He testified he had to cut some footage because of lip-reading and certain words spoken; and parts deemed not relevant, though he stressed the decision wasn’t his: “I didn’t decide.”

Cardona also handled exhibits taken from Caruana Galizia’s own property: three pen drives, two digital cameras and a small laptop. He reported that they had not been used for some time: the last content dated to 2015, with another of her profiles last active in 2014.

A deputy magistrate and two court transcribers established the provenance of the recordings and their transcripts (voices logged only as “Person A”, “Person B” and “a child”).   

Vella, the latest to testify in the trial against Yorgen Fenech, detailed how he was one of the first on the scene on 16 October 2017, when serving as an inspector at the Mosta station. He traced the leased number plate of the bombed vehicle – Caruana Galizia’s rented Peugeot 108 – and later assisted court expert Martin Bajada in gathering CCTV from the rental company.

However, much of his testimony focused on the 2019 money-laundering investigation into Theuma. On 9 September 2019, he was tasked by Assistant Commissioner Ian Abdilla with investigating Theuma. The case, he said, was framed around Theuma’s illegal lotto, money laundering and tax evasion; but he was informed it could also be connected to the murder.

Over the next two months, Vella built the case, and on 12 November asked a magistrate to open an inquiry into the findings.

An operation to arrest Theuma was planned for Saturday 16 November, the day of Theuma’s “Super 5” illegal lotto, Vella explained. However, on the Thursday prior, Vella noticed Theuma breaking his routine and, via the security services, learned he was moving items out of his Marsaskala base by van.

Fearing evidence destruction, Vella brought the arrest forward, localised Theuma’s phone as it moved south, and arrested him in Żurrieq at around 10:30am, alone, telling him it was for suspected money laundering and illegal lotto.

The ice-cream box

“Theuma told me: wherever that ice-cream box goes, I go. It was always me, him and the box,” Vella told jurors.

Vella sealed the box and kept constant watch over it. Opened later on video — before Theuma, his lawyers, investigators and the magistrate: it contained a voice recorder, USBs, mobiles, papers, a Faraday bag holding his phone, and photographs, including a photo of Theuma with Keith Schembri and images of chats with Yorgen Fenech.

On arrest, Theuma asked for a lawyer: naming, per Vella’s recollection, Simon Busuttil, Jason Azzopardi or Karol Aquilina, all opposition figures, though Vella added that Theuma mentioned names “from the government side too”. He also asked for Keith Arnaud by name, and for the Police Commissioner, at the time, Lawrence Cutajar. 

Under cross-examination, Vella confirmed Cutajar was not present when the box was opened at around ten that night.

The task force analysing the extracted data, of which Vella was part, triggered further investigations, including into the “phantom job”. The data also surfaced chats between Edgar Brincat and a police commissioner, and chats urging Theuma to come forward.

Melvin Theuma’s Arrest: Cars, Properties And Over €750,000 Discovered 

Simultaneous raids at Marsaskala, Mellieħa and Ħal Qormi netted five vehicles – a Jaguar, a Mercedes GLC, a Nissan Leaf, a Kia Sportage and a Toyota Passo – and large sums in cash: €112,304 from the Ħal Qormi residence where Theuma’s partner’s daughter lived; €550,207 plus foreign currency from a property in Żurrieq; and €132,445 in a shopping bag belonging to Carmela Catania, mother of Theuma’s partner Charmaine.

Theuma’s partner Charmaine and her daughter Chayenne admitted to charges against them, receiving suspended sentences and fines. Proceedings against Ryan Farrugia, Chayenne’s partner, are ongoing, and Theuma, whose pardon requires his testimony, has not yet testified in that case.

Vella confirmed the €132,445 was returned to Carmela Catania by a magistrate after she explained it as an inheritance.

Theuma’s wealth

Theuma’s wealth was the subject of intense cross-examination by Fenech’s defence team. Under questioning from Gianella de Marco, Vella confirmed Theuma declared roughly €250,000 in income over 12 years (2006-2018) — around €20,000 a year.

Against that, investigators identified at least 11 properties definitively in his possession, out of some 19 to 21 property documents in his name, with others rented out or passed on; around €1 million that circulated through his BOV account; and two taxi licences with a combined value Vella put at around €600,000 – the value, he explained, lying in the permits rather than the vehicles. 

Vella described the illegal lotto as effectively “one of the only” operations of its kind in Malta, run with his family’s help.

Under a freezing order, Theuma cannot sell his properties and assets but continues to benefit from buildings and cars that are rented out.

De Marco also pressed on a court application filed by Vella and Abdilla pursuant to the pardon’s financial terms, which she characterised as seeking the return of some €141,000 to Theuma. Vella said the application was made, has never been upheld, and that the financial analysis underpinning it is incomplete.

The phantom job and the cheques

Vella told the court that the photo of Theuma with Schembri was taken at Castille: Sandro Craus phoned Theuma to come in, and in the office were Theuma, Craus and Schembri. The photo, Vella said, was taken by Craus.

The job itself had the form of a genuine hire. Theuma, Vella said, “went through a full interview and came first” prompting de Marco’s retort: “But he didn’t go to work.”

The most pointed evidence concerned the cheques. Anthony Muscat – a government official involved in the payments, who has since died – told investigators he received a phone call from Keith Schembri once he stopped Theuma’s cheques. 

Theuma, by his own account, then called Yorgen Fenech to ask why the payments had stopped. Shortly afterwards, Muscat received another call from Schembri and resumed issuing the cheques.

The case relating to the phantom job remains open before the courts.

The claim, and Degiorgio’s credibility on it, were demolished in the same breath. George’s account of Cardona’s words had never been said before across his multiple sworn testimonies, a detail he admitted he deliberately withheld. 

His testimony started off confrontational. He told the court he would answer questions only on the 2015 plot and would answer nothing about his brother.

“I wanted to tell this morning. I was going to answer the defence and not the prosecution,” he said.

“Have you got another 40 years?” Degiorgio told Judge Edwina Grima when reminded that refusing to testify would result in criminal charges. He talked anyway.

He said Melvin Theuma came to the Marsa potato shed in around April or May 2017 “to kill Daphne”. George said he asked Theuma who had sent him, and Theuma named Schembri. 

“He told us softly ‘Keith Schembri sent me’” George claimed.

But George said he did not take Theuma’s word for it after the 2015 failed plan. He said he went with David Gatt to Chris Cardona – one of the men who, on his account, had commissioned him to murder Daphne in 2015 – to verify who had sent Theuma.

“I asked him who sent Melvin Theuma, and Cardona told me: Keith Schembri,” he said.

Asked who was in the group behind the murder, George listed six: himself, Vince Muscat, Theuma, David Gatt, Cardona and Schembri. “The same people, in both plots,” he said. 

“They’re not going to engage another man, it doesn’t suit them. So they engaged Melvin instead of coming themselves.”

Asked directly why Theuma wanted Caruana Galizia dead, he replied: “Because of Keith Schembri, obviously. She is going to destroy the party

Six years of silence

Prosecution lawyer Godwin Cini went straight at the obvious problem. Degiorgio’s conviction became final in November 2023. Police approached him in December 2023 and February 2024; he gave a statement in March 2024; he testified before Magistrate Rachel Montebello, who oversaw the compilation of evidence, in May 2024, and twice before Magistrate Victor Axiak, in June and September 2025.

In none of it, Cini said, did he give this account. George’s answer was an admission of deliberate withholding: “Because I didn’t want to say everything — so he’d arrest people, like they did to us.” He said he had given investigators only a fragment, a message he never saw, which David Gatt told him came from Schembri “because I know I’ll testify again.”

George insisted he had tried to talk from the beginning. He said that when he first asked for a pardon he named the men — “and they threw me out. They told us it’s not credible; nobody wants to hear anything.”

2017 v 2015: George’s Conflicting Memories

George’s memory of 2017 was far thinner than of 2015. On everything after the commissioning – how they prepared, how she died, the six men’s actual roles – he answered “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember”, and refused questions touching his brother.

“I met Melvin Theuma twice. I don’t know where Alfred met him,” he said.

Of David Gatt, who Muscat testified would make a “number one” gesture at the shed referring to Schembri: “He’s one of us. He was an idiot, he was crazy — truly, he was happy,” George said.

He claimed Cardona had promised more than money: two containers of contraband cigarettes a year through the Freeport, and the Tal-Fekruna petrol station in Xemxija. 

“Cardona told us: that’s what we’ll work on,” he said, adding that Cardona “called the Freeport in front of us”.

Prison, bail and the arrest

George said the hitmen knew of their December 2017 arrest three weeks in advance, because Theuma told them; and that Theuma told them to keep their heads high. Asked why: “Because we have the help.” From whom? “Cardona and Keith Schembri, we assumed.”

He confirmed speaking to Theuma by phone from prison, describing the calls as unremarkable. “Yes, we received things while in prison. But I don’t know where it was from,” he said.

“And who was paying your lawyer William Cuschieri? Where did that money come from?” Godwin Cini asked.

“From heaven. I don’t know where. From heaven.” he replied.

He confirmed information reached them in prison about their bail request. David Gatt, he said, would visit “with the excuse that he was a lawyer” and was the one certain bail would come.

 “Go to Chris Cardona and Keith Schembri to get bail,” George said of the talk at the time. “They had the power.”

2015 plan:

He provided his most detailed account yet of the alleged 2015 plot. It began, he said, when David Gatt came to tell him that Chris Cardona wanted to meet him about a “job”.

“We went to meet him at Portomaso. We went down the long staircase, sat down and had a drink. He told me: I want you to kill Daphne. I asked him: who is she? He said David would tell me,” Degiorgio said.

On the €150,000 price, George quoted Cardona telling him, in vulgar terms, to enjoy the money — “isn’t it passport money?” Asked why he wanted her dead, George said Cardona told him: “Because she’ll break our party.”

Cardona, he said, also made a gesture referring to the Commissioner and pointed his finger upwards. George said he did not know at the time what it meant, later assumed it referred to the Police Commissioner.

Under questioning from the defence team, he named Keith Schembri as being part of the plot. 

George said a €50,000 deposit was agreed, and that days later, at the same Portomaso spot, Cardona left him a packet containing the money. He said he kept a share for expenses and gave Muscat and Jamie Vella €10,000 each, adding, pointedly: “This Vince won’t confirm.”

George said that they collected a 50,000 euro deposit a few days later. He said they watched her for a while but could not keep track. The plan, he added, was to stop her in the road and shoot her. 

He said that David Gatt told him to stop plan when an election was called. In 2015, there was the local council elections, but that date was decided well before that year.

The plan was to stop Caruana Galizia in the road at a dip near her home and have Vella shoot her from a van; the weapon was never decided. Gatt fed them information he said came from Schembri, including that she worked at a magazine near the regional road. They saw her once, gave chase, and lost her.

“What a show Vince made yesterday. He spoke about a lot. Did he mentioned what happened to Tat-Tyson? How his own family killed him? How his own 15-year-old son did it?” he told jurors. 

Jonathan Pace, who operated Tyson Butcher, was murdered in August 2014 in a drive by shooting in an SUV. He had been accused of the attempted murder of Vince Muscat, who was shot outside his house in April on that year.

Contradicting Vince Muscat

There were repeated contradictions with the testimony of Vince Muscat. George said he was “certain” the €30,000 deposit came before the 2017 election, Muscat testified it came after. He said he alone set the €150,000 price, consulting no one. 

He denied outright Muscat’s evidence that he sent fake messages to Caruana Galizia: “Vince testified yesterday that I sent the message to Daphne. He testified for seven years and never mentioned it. You’re false.”

Asked how he knew what Muscat had said the day before, George — who is serving his sentence in prison — replied: “From the news, of course.”.

He was openly hostile throughout the sitting, showing clear animosity for Cini, who he blamed for sentencing him to life in prison over the murder of Carmel Chircop.

“How do you sleep at night?” George asked. The courtroom was incredulous.