A court expert was granted access to the exhibits' room in which Keith Schembri's phone is being held without showing proof he had the authorisation of the magistrate presiding over the former chief-of-staff's money laundering case and other senior court officials.
Details about the circumstances surrounding the curious episode of Schembri’s 'lost' phone emerged on Monday when a line of witnesses testified in the constitutional case filed by the former chief of staff.
This is the second phone owned by the former OPM chief-of-staff to go missing, after another mobile of his was not found when he was arrested in November 2019 in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
In the ongoing constitutional case, Schembri’s lawyers are claiming his rights were breached through the handling of the device that was a crucial piece of evidence in money laundering proceedings.
The phone allegedly went missing for weeks on end and was ultimately found among the exhibits related to a separate case concerning two Zenith Finance directors who are also facing money laundering charges.
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, who is presiding over the money laundering cases, subsequently dictated a strongly-worded minute, lamenting the poor condition inside the courts’ exhibits room and putting down the phone’s misplacement to bad administration.
'It was all in a hurry, urgent'
The court official responsible for the strongroom at level -3 of the law courts building told court that expert Keith Cutajar had knocked at his office telling him that he needed access to the exhibits room.
“He was in a hurry. He put down his things and told me: ‘let go of whatever you’re doing. We have to go down and check some exhibits on magistrate’s orders',” Owen Galea testified.
He said he was shown nothing in writing but simply relied on what the expert said, without asking who the magistrate was.
Schembri’s lawyer, Edward Gatt, read out an extract from Cutajar’s testimony before Magistrate Frendo Dimech where the witness stated that he had “shown [Galea] the court’s minute and decree [to that effect]”.
But Galea insisted that he saw nothing in writing.
He escorted Cutajar to the room and directed him to the shelving where the 2022 and 2023 exhibits were stored.
“He [Cutajar] said that it must have been exhibited around the end of 2022, beginning of 2023,” said Galea.
The expert had “immediately identified the bag containing certain exhibits” but did not take anything.
Cutajar had not even told the officer which case had triggered that visit.
Confronted with photos allegedly taken by the expert inside the exhibits' room, Galea confirmed that Cutajar had snapped some photos with his mobile phone to show the state of that room.
“Did he photograph the exhibit,”asked the lawyer.
“No, just the room,” said Galea, explaining that since he took up the job last year he was working on bringing order to the storage system.
“2023 is all in order and I’m currently working on 2022. Step by step,” said Galea, confirming that when the exhibits concerning Schembri’s case had first arrived in the strong room he was not the officer in charge.
He logs in all details and photographs each exhibit, he said.
Asked whether he also recorded visits to the room, Galea said he “normally" did, but in this case, it was “all in a hurry - urgent”.
Cutajar had checked the open bag, telling Galea that he had identified the particular exhibit.
But he could not tell if the other items in the bag were sealed, since he was not in charge when they were first deposited there.
The second officer with access to that room was David Scerri, a messenger, who, on that day had accompanied Galea and Cutajar.
No one can access that room unless authorised by a magistrate or judge.
Asked whether court experts were allowed in, Scerri’s reply was clear.
“No… only one did and he told us it was under a magistrate’s order."
Photos and CCTV footage
Footage from two cameras outside the strongroom and another one just inside the room was presented by the chief executive officer of the Courts Services Agency, Eunice Grech Fiorini.
Court authorities had filed a note rebutting what Magistrate Frendo Dimech minuted about the state of total disarray wherein exhibits were handled, possibly jeopardising the proper administration of justice.
The magistrate had ordered that minute to be notified to the court authorities and the Justice Minister.
“All exhibits are catalogued and easily traceable,” the agency replied.
“Someone wanted to give the impression that in that place - where the particular exhibit was found - there is a state of neglect,” remarked Schembri’s lawyer.
As for the eight photos taken by Cutajar inside the exhibits' room, Grech Fiorini confirmed that no photos were allowed in court unless authorised by herself and the Chief Justice.
There were legal repercussions if that rule was breached.
Expert did not go to magistrate’s chambers
Following his visit to the exhibits' room, Cutajar had emailed the set of photos to the magistrate’s deputy registrar on his work email.
Anthony Pace - Frendo Dimech’s deputy for the past two years - testified that he had printed those photos and presented them in the money laundering proceedings on November 20.
During that sitting, the same court expert had been summoned to testify.
But when asked about the “methodology” used to communicate with experts in Schembri’s case, Pace had no answer for that.
Normally the magistrate would forward a decree to the Attorney General who directs the police to issue notices of summons to witnesses.
No such decree could be traced in this case.
Cutajar had testified that when he checked the Magistrate’s chambers, “all was in order”.
But her deputy on Monday insisted that “[Cutajar] did not go up to the chambers”.
To do so he would either have to go with the magistrate herself or with her deputy and on that occasion he did neither, said Pace.
Schembri’s phone seized in 2020, exhibited in court in 2023
Schembri’s phone was seized by police during money laundering investigations and was handed to court expert Martin Bajada on September 22 of 2020.
But data extracted from the device was presented in the criminal case against Schembri, his father and two business associates in January 2023, while the phone itself was presented by Bajada in July 2023.
“So where was the phone during all that time,” asked Schembri’s lawyer.
“Supposedly with Bajada,” replied court registrar Franklin Calleja, confirming that recently there had been a request by Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers for that phone plus data to be exhibited in the proceedings where Fenech stands accused of complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The case presided by Mr Justice Mark Simiana continues.
State Advocate lawyer Maurizio Cordina represented the respondents.
Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo assisted Schembri.