Keith Schembri had alerted Yorgen Fenech that Vince Muscat, one of the hitmen involved in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, was cooperating with police, a court heard on Tuesday.
Inspector Shaun Friggieri told the court how, during a meeting, Fenech informed murder middleman Melvin Theuma that Muscat had started speaking to investigators.
The police acquired this information because Theuma was recording the conversation.
Shortly before the meeting with Fenech and Theuma, the police found that Schembri had called the alleged murder mastermind's mobile phone from his landline.
The prosecution argued that Schembri was the only person who would have known about this incident, as arranging a meeting with the Office of the Prime Minister to discuss Muscat's presidential pardon required his involvement.
The inspector was testifying in the compilation of evidence phase of the criminal case filed against former OPM chief of staff Schembri who stands charged with leaking information around the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.
Schembri was charged with perjury and breaching the Official Secrets Act.
This probe was triggered after Fenech claimed that information about the investigation was leaked to him.
This meeting between Fenech and Theuma happened on April 25, 2018, when Muscat - who admitted to involvement in Caruana Galizia’s murder - was helping police with investigations while asking for a presidential pardon.
Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, was eventually handed a 15-year sentence for Caruana Galizia’s murder.
Fenech told Theuma: “Sieħbi ma jafx min hemm wara tan-nofs, imma jaf min hemm tan-nofs" (My friend doesn’t know who’s behind the middleman, but he knows who’s the middleman).
Following Fenech’s orders, Theuma went to inform Mario Degiorgio - brother of Caruana Galizia hitmen George and Alfred Degiorgio - that Muscat was talking to the police.
After this, Theuma spent the night drinking as he was concerned about what Muscat was revealing. When he woke up, he found many messages from Fenech asking him to get information about the investigation.
As Theuma did not answer Fenech’s messages at first, Schembri spoke to Fenech and asked him whether or not Theuma was responding.
The inspector pointed out that since he was not responding, this led to a panic, as that evening, two people showed up at Theuma’s house to “calm him down”.
These two men were Joseph Muscat’s former bodyguard Kenneth Camilleri and Johann Cremona. In a previous sitting, Camilleri testified how Schembri told him to go “calm down” Theuma, who then repeatedly asked Camilleri for updates on the bail of Carana Galizia’s hitmen.
‘These messages are confi’
Investigations also found WhatsApp chats that showed Schembri and Fenech were continuously messaging from January 2019 until the businessman was arrested in November 2019. They were also communicating before this period, but Fenech’s phone was stolen.
During this period, Schembri used the code word “confi” twice when he sent something confidential. Once, in January 2019, Schembri sent a court decree that had not yet been released. Another time, in February 2019, Schembri sent an internal police email to Fenech.
The inspector added there was no mention of Caruana Galizia’s murder on WhatsApp.
Investigations also found that Schembri and Fenech were communicating on messaging called Signal, which had a setting that would allow messages to disappear after a certain number of hours. WhatsApp now also has this function, but not during 2019.
After reviewing Fenech’s phone, the police found that Fenech changed the disappearing messaging settings around 13 times. There were also 149 tentative calls on Signal.
Fenech is currently out on bail, pending the trial.
Magistrate Claire Micallef Stafrace presided over the case. Lawyers Edward Gatt, Mark Vassallo, Sean Zammit appeared for Schembri. Superintendent Hubert Cini and police inspector Shaun Friggieri are prosecuting.Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia were parte civile.