The Attorney General had advised the police not to investigate parallel requests to prosecute, filed gainst each by Melvin Theuma and Yorgen Fenech, telling them not to do so while proceedings concerning the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder were ongoing.
That identical advice was confirmed by superintendent Victor Aquilina when testifying on Tuesday in proceedings filed by the self-confessed middleman challenging the police commissioner to prosecute alleged accomplice Yorgen Fenech for calumny and intimidation in respect of Theuma as key witness in the murder proceedings.
During both challenge proceedings, presided over by Magistrate Nadine Lia, the court was told that police sought advice from the Attorney General on how to handle the requests to prosecute.
Aquilina explained that after receiving the criminal complaint by Theuma he had consulted his superior, assistant commissioner Stephen Mallia.
A meeting was subsequently held with Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg who, as in the case of Fenech’s criminal complaint, advised police not to investigate while criminal proceedings related to the murder were still ongoing.
The AG had tendered the same advice with respect to both complaints and upon those instructions, the police had not engaged in any investigations, Aquilina testified.
Lead investigator superintendent Keith Arnaud also testified today, explaining that he only supplied generic information about the complaint filed by Melvin Theuma for police to prosecute Yorgen Fenech, but definitely gave no advice on the way forward.
That complaint was triggered by a similar request made by Fenech’s lawyers for police to prosecute the self-confessed middleman for perjury, following “half truths” and “blatant lies” when testifying in the murder case.
When asked by Theuma’s lawyer, Kathleen Calleja Grima, whether any member of the police corps had discussed with him the challenge proceedings, Arnaud said that originally he had only learnt about them through the media.
But he had certainly given no advice on the way forward, recalling that he may have possibly discussed the matter generically, supplying “a very brief background” to the murder investigations.
Asked about the presidential pardon granted to Theuma in exchange for his testimony in the murder case, Arnaud recalled how the self-confessed middleman had requested a pardon before being interrogated.
The information he supplied, together with his secretly recorded conversations with Fenech, the alleged mastermind in the plot, corroborated previous investigations carried out by the police.
That was why police had recommended the granting of a pardon to Theuma.
He may have explained to any colleague working on the criminal complaints leading up to the challenge proceedings why police had reached such recommendation, but he definitely had nothing to do with investigations in that regard , Arnaud stressed.
Inspector Zahra likewise testified that although he was aware of the criminal complaint, he was “not involved in it at all.”
One of those complaints, had first been forwarded to the Homicide Squad from the police legal office, said Zahra, adding that he could not recall whether this related to Theuma’s or Fenech’s challenge.
But in any case, they had replied that since that unit had handled the murder investigation and issued charges, they were to distance themselves from such challenge proceedings, explained Zahra.
The case continues in November.
Inspector Daryl Borg prosecuted.
Lawyers Kathleen Calleja Grima and Matthew Brincat assisted Theuma.