How a letter implicated Keith Schembri in murder

Keith Schembri was once the most powerful unelected official in Joseph Muscat’s government.

A backroom wheeler-dealer who had no qualms mixing his business interests with politics, Schembri mastered the art of political survival in the Muscat years, despite facing countless corruption claims.

A handwritten letter authored by a taxi driver would help lead to his downfall.

Fearing for his life, Melvin Theuma confessed in the letter to being the middleman in journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

“I am relaying this proof so that you will know who hired me and paid for the bomb. I am doing this because I realised that these two people, Yurgen Fenech and Keith Schembri il-Kasco, were working to get rid of me as well,” Theuma wrote in the letter.

Theuma’s confession note was discovered by investigators in November 2019 during searches of business magnate Yorgen Fenech’s Portomaso properties.

Fenech is on trial for allegedly ordering Theuma to hire hitmen to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Up until Fenech’s arrest in November 2019, investigators were adamant there was no reason for Schembri to have even been on their radar.

Fearing for his life, Melvin Theuma confessed in the letter to being the middleman in journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

On ice

Far from being a suspect, Schembri was allowed to sit in on sensitive briefings by the police and the security services about the progression of investigations into Theuma and Fenech.

An ice cream box closely guarded by Theuma would provide further leads.

Apart from secretly recorded conversations between Theuma and Fenech, investigators discovered a photo taken at the prime minister’s office in Castille.

The photo showed a grinning Schembri and Theuma. It was taken after Theuma was allegedly given a fake government job by Schembri in the run-up to the June 2017 election.

The plot to murder Caruana Galizia was allegedly made during the same period.

The discovery of the letter did not immediately trigger Schembri’s arrest. When questioned by investigators about the letter claims, Theuma, who was angling for a presidential pardon, said he did not have any first-hand knowledge of Schembri’s involvement.

“There was a time when I used to equate Keith Schembri with Yorgen. I begged Yorgen: please don’t let them kill me,” Theuma would say in later testimony, clarifying that, at the time, he believed Schembri “was involved” and was plotting to get him out of the way.

Late-night meeting

A further spotlight was shone on Schembri after Fenech’s bids for his own presidential pardon were rejected by Muscat’s government.

Feeling betrayed by his “friend” Schembri, Fenech began to implicate the prime minister’s right-hand man in the murder plot. Fenech claimed that Schembri first wanted Caruana Galizia dead after the blogger revealed he was suffering from a serious health issue.

The businessman also claimed that Schembri helped him try to obtain a pardon by authoring a “script” pinning the murder on then minister Chris Cardona.

As the claims against the chief of staff at the office of the prime minister mounted, investigators decided to arrest him. In the hours before the arrest, Schembri held a late-night meeting at Muscat’s Burmarrad home. Muscat would later testify that the meeting was to discuss Schembri’s resignation.

At some point that same night, Schembri claims to have lost his mobile phone and, with it, a potential treasure trove of messages for investigators to trawl through.

Schembri spent two days in police custody being interrogated about the murder.

He denied the claims thrown at him by Fenech, which even included an alleged plot to have Theuma shot.

In a rare statement about an individual suspect, the police said Schembri was being released following “intensive investigations” about the allegations against him. “At this stage, the police do not feel the need to detain Mr Schembri under arrest for any longer,” the statement said.

‘Fraternal friendship’

The apparent lack of action against Schembri was seized upon by Fenech’s defence team. They demanded that lead investigator Keith Arnaud be removed from the case, alleging Arnaud was compromised because Schembri helped his wife get a government job.

Although the bid for Arnaud’s removal failed, Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff blasted institutional failures in the murder investigation and Schembri in particular. 

The court said Schembri had failed to flag his “fraternal friendship” with Fenech even as he attended confidential briefings about the ongoing murder case.

Arnaud, on the other hand, had no way of knowing that the two men were linked and could not even trust his superiors, who had leaked information to Schembri and met key players in the case behind his back, the court said.

Describing Schembri as Muscat’s “factotum and alter ego”, the court noted how Schembri continued to attend the murder briefings at Castille even when Theuma’s pardon was being discussed. 

He never declared his “fraternal friendship” with Fenech, even after Fenech became a police suspect and had his phone tapped by security services, the court said.

The court said it had “great doubts” about whether “Schembri’s personal interests were prevailing and taking the upper hand against the public interest” in the case.

Leaks charges

Schembri would eventually be made to answer for his conduct during the murder probe. A five-year magisterial inquiry into leaks of sensitive information eventually found enough evidence to charge the former chief of staff with perjury and breaches of the Official Secrets Act.

Key testimony in the case against Schembri came from Kenneth Camilleri, a former bodyguard to Muscat. Camilleri testified that Schembri called him one summer evening in 2018 and asked him to visit Theuma to “calm him” down. He said he was not aware who Theuma was at the time. Camilleri said it was normal to be asked to go to speak to people due to electoral issues.

During the meeting, Theuma asked Camilleri when hitmen Alfred and George Degiorgio would be granted bail.

Schembri, who is expected to be called as a witness in the trial against Fenech, denies wrongdoing.