Anġlu Farrugia on a stolen Caravaggio, and arresting Daphne Caruana Galizia

Before Anġlu Farrugia was parliamentary speaker or a Labour MP, he was a police inspector.

In an interview with Times of Malta he also touched on his time in the police force, which saw him involved in solving Malta’s most infamous art heist.

Besides helping to recover Caravaggio’s St Jerome, which had originally been stolen in 1984, Farrugia said he was involved in investigating a number of major crimes.

Despite his Labour background before he entered the police force, Farrugia said he had the trust of then Nationalist prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami, adding that he had been among those tasked with solving some of the most high-profile cases at the time.

“Shortly after Eddie Fenech Adami took over government, Superintendent Freddie Calleja asked me to join his criminal investigations squad, which would concentrate on hot cases.”

“I was his number two,” Farrugia said.

Those cases included the stolen Caravaggio, investigating the death of Nardu Debono, which saw former police commissioner Lawrence Pullicino jailed for murder, and the 1984 murder of PN activist Wilfred Cardona.

Times of Malta also asked Farrugia about arresting Daphne Caruana Galizia in the 1980s.

How the police recovered the stolen Caravaggio

Farrugia described how an investigation involving wiretapping phone calls eventually led to finding the Caravaggio painting in a factory in Marsa.

“At the time, laws on how and when police could wiretap someone were not that strong,” Farrugia said.

In December 1984, thieves had set up a chain with a sign reading “no entry” as they went about their plans to steal Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome Writing.

The painting, from around 1607, was removed from the wall and the canvas was removed from the frame before being rolled up and allegedly thrown out of a window in St John’s Square.

At the time, there were several rumours about its whereabouts, involving organised crime, illicit private collections and even potential ransom scenarios.

Farrugia said he spoke to anti-Mafia experts in Italy who said nothing could be excluded.

“But probably the painting was too hot to handle and so they did not want it. But we had no proof in that direction.”

What the police did know, however, was that the thieves were trying to negotiate a price with the then director of museums Fr Marius Zerafa and return the work.

“Zerafa helped us a lot in the investigation because they would call him and manage to stay on the line long enough for us to trace them.”

“I would tell him not to hang up the phone and stay on the line.”

Farrugia said his boss, Calleja, coordinated with the AFM to locate the painting and the men responsible.

Farrugia said he had charged the two men allegedly responsible. However, a trial never took place as the accused had died.

Farrugia pointed to the relationship he had with former prime minister Fenech Adami, despite their different political backgrounds.

“He asked me to take on a very hot criminal case... I said I would do it but asked him why he wanted me to take it on. Fenech Adami told me that I am the one who is bianco, referring to the fact that I do not have baggage.”

Arresting Daphne Caruana Galizia

As a police inspector, Farrugia arrested Daphne Caru-ana Galizia at an anti-government protest in the early 1980s.

Caruana Galizia claimed in 2003 that Farrugia had arrested her for assault and locked her in a “dark and dirty cell” for two days before pressuring her to sign a “pre-written confession”.

Asked what he thought of the matter some 40 years down the line, Farrugia said: “I was simply doing my job.”

He said his job was to spot a crime, investigate and charge in court, which was what he did.

“It wasn’t only Daphne we arrested but there were others,” he said.

Following the publication of Caruana Galizia’s blog post on the arrest, Farrugia said he had filed a criminal libel case against the former journalist, which he won in the first instance and on appeal.

“I don’t want to go into it, other than I did my job,” he said.

He added that he was extremely sorry to hear of her assassination and had supported the public inquiry into her murder.

“So much so that I was the first person to testify,” he said.