The head of Malta’s anti-terror police unit on Wednesday testified that he had personally reached out to foreign intelligence agencies including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on the day that Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated.

Superintendent George Cremona recalled how he had started contacting foreign experts from around 4.30pm on October 16, 2017 and had arranged for the FBI to send a team to Malta. Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb around 90 minutes earlier. 

He told a court that he did this on his own initiative and had subsequently informed police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar. He only informed Cutajar's deputy, Silvio Valletta, later. 

Cremona was testifying in a public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder and answering questions by Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi.

He presented documents, including a letter he sent to the US ambassador and correspondence with his counterpart in Rome, as evidence of his work to secure the help of the FBI in solving the murder.

Schembri's claim

The superintendent’s testimony raises questions about a claim made by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri last December while under oath in a separate court.

Schembri had said that it was his idea to rope in the FBI and that he had personally called the police commissioner on the night of the murder to push for their involvement.

Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations were flown into Malta to help police investigate the murder of the high-profile journalist. 

Sources have said their expertise was crucial in identifying the three men, who now stand accused of carrying out her murder. 

Brothers Alfred and George Degorgio and a third man, Vincent Muscat, were arrested in December 2017. 

They used triangulation and other methods to establish exactly how the car bomb was detonated. and traced the mobile phones involved. 

Last year, on the anniversary of Caruana Galizia's death, the embassy had urged the authorities to take action to solve the murder.