Melvin Theuma’s lawyers had only learnt through media reports about a criminal complaint filed against him by Yorgen Fenech and were still to get a copy of that legal document, a court was told.
The legal duel between the self-confessed middleman and alleged accomplice in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia continued on Tuesday when Theuma returned to court, challenging the police commissioner to prosecute Fenech for calumny and moral violence in his regard.
Tuesday’s opening session followed hot on the heels of a similar hearing on Thursday, when Magistrate Nadine Lia presided over a first hearing in parallel proceedings filed by Fenech, challenging the police commissioner to prosecute the middleman for perjury.
Both cases, though separate, stem from a flurry of judicial acts filed last October when both players in the Caruana Galizia murder case filed criminal complaints against each other at the Valletta police station, followed up by challenge applications calling for criminal action against each other.
Last Thursday, Fenech’s challenge kicked off before Magistrate Lia who pointed out that in such proceedings the court does not enter into the merits but simply determines whether the commissioner failed to act.
That observation was reiterated by Magistrate Lia on Tuesday when Theuma’s lawyers asked whether the magistrate would recuse herself in view of the fact that she had done so when assigned a “separate inquiry” concerning Theuma.
This was clearly a reference to the time when Magistrate Lia had abstained back in 2019 from handling an inquiry into the phantom government job given to Theuma following his meeting at Castille with former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.
Although pointing this out in court on Tuesday, lawyers Matthew Brincat and Kathleen Calleja Grima stressed that they had full faith in Magistrate Lia and considered it in the best interests of justice for both challenges to be heard by the same magistrate.
The hearing then proceeded with the mapping forward of the case.
Stressing that they had only learnt about Fenech’s challenge through the media, Theuma’s lawyers pointed out that, to date, they still did not have a copy of Fenech’s criminal complaint.
According to media reports, Fenech’s lawyers were claiming that Theuma had given false testimony in the murder proceedings.
“We do not agree with that and we want to rebut it,”argued Calleja Grima, explaining that they had since received a reply from the police commissioner stating his legal position with respect to their request to prosecute Fenech.
“Our client has testified not only at the inquiry but also in proceedings before the highest authorities of the land,” added Brincat.
Inspector Daryl Borg, assisted by lawyer Lynn Schembri from the police legal unit, said that they had no objection to the lawyers’ request for a copy of Fenech’s criminal complaint.
Asked by the magistrate about witnesses to be summoned in these proceedings, Theuma’s lawyers named lead murder investigators Superintendent Keith Arnaud and Inspector Kurt Zahra, as well as Inspector Nicholas Vella and two other officers to confirm legal documents.
The court deferred the case to March.