Keith Schembri’s former assistant at the Office of the Prime Minister testified on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Charlene Bianco Farrugia was one of two witnesses testifying before the three-person inquiry. Ronnie Vella, a government worker employed by Projects Malta, was the other.
The public inquiry continues on Monday at 2.30pm.
Bianco Farrugia testified that:
- She 'sometimes saw' Yorgen Fenech at Castille, though she declined to discuss specifics
- She started working at the OPM in 2013 as Schembri's personal assistant and then became an executive assistant in 2016
Vella testified that:
- He worked at the OPM for four months, between September 2019 and January of this year
- Part of his job was to pass information about persons of interest to Keith Schembri
- He went to a Rabat bar in May 2017, together with another man helping with the PL electoral campaign, to 'have a cup of tea'
- He did not recall taking photos of people inside the bar that day
As it happened
Live blog ends
3.46pm This live blog will end here. Thank you for joining us – we’ll have a summary of the key points from today’s testimonies available soon at the top of this article.
Behind closed doors
3.42pm That’s all the public will learn from Bianco Farrugia – the rest of her testimony will be held behind closed doors.
Journalists are asked to leave the room. The inquiry will continue on Monday at 2.30pm, though we still do not know who will be testifying.
Yorgen Fenech's OPM visits
3.39pm Bianco Farrugia is asked whether she ever saw Yorgen Fenech at Castille.
“Ġieli rajtu,” [I saw him occasionally] she replies. But she cannot recall how often she saw him there.
“Was he there often? He wasn’t the invisible man,” says judge Lofaro.
“I think it’s in the public domain that Yorgen Fenech was at Castille,” the witness says.
Chief of staff's assistant
3.36pm Bianco Farrugia says she was engaged as the personal assistant to the OPM chief of staff in 2013 and was then made an executive assistant, to handle “projects”, in 2016.
Before her OPM job, she worked at MITA.
Bianco Farrugia says her office was on the same floor as that of the prime minister’s secretariat and that of the chief of staff. She shared an office with another three or four other people, who changed over the years.
“Did they all answer to Keith Schembri?”
“As far as I know, everyone in the secretariat was answerable to Keith Schembri”.
A job at MITA
3.31pm It looks like Bianco Farrugia will only answer some basic questions, with most of her testimony likely to continue behind closed doors.
The witness says she now works at MITA, having moved there after Robert Abela took office.
“Before that, I worked at the OPM,” she says.
Bianco Farrugia asks to testify in private
3.27pm Bianco Farrugia’s lawyer, Franco Galea, wants his client to testify before closed doors, saying she has testified in an inquiry this week in relation to Yorgen Fenech, Melvin Theuma and Keith Schembri.
Comodini Cachia says she has no objection, but that some questions can be asked - and answered - publicly.
A trusted person
3.25pm Comodini Cachia wants to know why Vella was present at the Malta Summit.
“I was part of a CHOGM task force,” he says. He acknowledges that he was a trusted person in the Muscat administration.
That’s all from Vella, whose testimony is suspended until he gets round to speaking to the Valletta police about that November incident at Castille.
Charlene Bianco Farrugia will testify next.
Vella's OPM job
3.22pm Vella says he worked for Prime Minister Robert Abela for “almost a week and half” but was then told to go back to Projects Malta.
Answering a question, he says he had been moved to the OPM after receiving a phone call from the prime minister [Joseph Muscat] telling him he wanted him to replace someone else who had left.
Keith Schembri's eyes and ears
3.19pm Comodini Cachia wants to know whether any journalists were in that photo.
“I don’t know,” the former OPM communications official says. “I don’t know them”.
Comodini Cachia asks whether it was part of his job to send information about people of interest to the Labour Party and OPM.
“Maybe,” Vella says.
“Who did you pass information to?”
“Generally Keith Schembri”.
“What if the information was sensitive?”
“Keith Schembri”.
Why that bar?
3.16pm Lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia says the press conference that May day in 2017 was at 8.30am.
Vella replies that he stayed on after it had ended, to help clear up.
Comodini Cachia suggests Vella left that press conference, noticed a particular person and then followed them into the Rabat bar.
“No, ta,” he replies. “We wanted to get some pastizzi from is-Serkin, but there was no parking so we went to that bar instead”.
“Ah, now he is remembering,” says judge Lofaro.
Taking photos
3.10pm Vella explains how both he and the other man had worked together on the PL electoral campaign but have since lost touch.
He is shown a photo in which he is holding up his mobile phone towards two other people.
“Do you deny having taken video or photos of these two people?” he is asked.
“I honestly don’t know who they are,” he replies.
“Is this normal for you?”
“No, it’s not. I remember the bar [next to the Saqqajja petrol station] but I cannot remember taking photos,” he says.
"Whatever you were doing with that mobile - and strangely enough you weren’t looking at your mobile - the information was passed on," the board remarks.
A man, recognised
3.07pm Vella names the person in the photo. But the media have been barred from publishing any names, so we’ll leave it at that.
Vella says the person helped with press conferences and that Joseph Muscat had a press conference that day, in Buskett.
“We had finished our work and we stopped to have a cup of tea,” he says.
Rabat meeting
Ronnie Vella3.04pm Back to that Rabat meeting.
It happened on May 25, 2017 during the general election campaign, Vella is told.
“You were there at 10am. By 4pm somebody else had received the information [conveyed],” the board says.
Vella is shown a series of photos.
About Yorgen Fenech
3.01pm Did Vella ever see Yorgen Fenech at the OPM?
“I never saw him on the third or second floor,” he says. “I only saw him on the media”.
Vella says he rarely met Neville Gafa’, whose office was on the second floor.
Did Keith Schembri know Yorgen Fenech, the witness is asked.
“I don’t know,” Vella says.
"So no one told you anything," judge Lofaro tells him.
Mystery third person
2.59pm Vella’s lawyer wants to know if there are any photos of this other person.
“There are,” he is told. “We assure you that there are”.
The inquiry tells the witness that they have information that the information he received that day was conveyed to another person.
“That person had testified before this board. So if you do not say the truth, we have a problem,” Vella is told.
Vella again asks the board of inquiry to give him more information, to help him remember the meeting.
Hints of a phone call
2.56pm Vella acknowledges that he might have been at the bar in question, but asks the inquiry to show him the other person he was with, to help jog his memory.
“I don’t even remember the name of the bar. Even yesterday, I met my lawyer and afterwards I went to have a drink in Lija”.
No harm in that, the board of inquiry tells him, adding however “but if we have evidence that you were there and that after that there was a phone call to someone else...”
A 'cup of tea' in Rabat
2.52pm The inquiry is keen to know about Vella’s Rabat connections.
“Are you from Rabat?”
“No.”
“Is anyone you are related to from Rabat or Mdina?”
“No.”
“Were you at any bar in Rabat?”
“2017 isn’t yesterday,” Vella replies.
The witness is shown some photos. He confirms he features in them but says he cannot remember the event.
“There was no event,” he is told.
“What if we tell you that you were at a bar with someone else and what you heard was transmitted to someone else?” Vella is asked.
Vella replies: “I was often out and about. We might have dropped by for a cup of tea”.
Panama Papers
2.48pm Judge Said Pullicino asks whether Vella was assigned any Panama Papers-related tasks in 2017.
“I helped in the Labour Party’s election campaign,” the witness ventures.
Vella's job
2.45pm Vella had an office on the third floor of the OPM. He liased with Ray Barbara, the Prime Minister’s assistant, to organise events. His job concerned logistics, he says: he assigned seats to journalists and so on.
“Did you read Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog?” judge Mallia asks.
“Sometimes, like all Maltese,” he says.
Judge Lofaro wants to know if he ever discussed the blog, informally with friends.
“No,” he says. “Not really”.
A four-month OPM stint
2.42pm Vella says he is a projects manager at Projects Malta – a role he’s occupied since he left the OPM in January.
He worked at the communications office at the OPM, having started in September 2019, he says. He was seconded there from Projects Malta and is now back there, he confirms.
“Were you a person of trust?
“I don’t know. I was seconded”.
His lawyer intervenes. He says that Vella “might have been” a person of trust.
Ronnie Vella testifies
2.39pm Ronnie Vella is called to the witness stand. He is being assisted by lawyer Jonathan Attard.
Dr Attard tells the inquiry that his client should not testify until he has spoken to Valletta police about the late-night incident at Castille (when journalists were kept inside a room).
“He was asked to go to Valletta police station to speak about this. He hasn’t gone yet,” Vella’s lawyer says. “They summoned him twice but certain things need to be clarified”.
The incident in question happened more than three months ago, at the end of November.
The inquiry agrees not to ask questions about that incident.
Cancelled speech
2.36pm The party was held at Portomaso club Level 22 and Fenech was due to give a speech at it – the party budget featured a line item citing it. But the OPM intervened and asked to cancel the speech, Caruana Galizia says.
The party cost €28,000 in all and happened after assassination (and after Times of Malta and Reuters revealed that Yorgen Fenech was the owner of 17 Black).
“It is unlikely that government would have extended the deal on the loan had the information about 17 Black emerged,” Caruana Galizia notes.
Who went to the Electrogas party?
2.31pm Matthew Caruana Galizia also has documents to present to the inquiry. They’re related to the Electrogas deal, which he says he was helping his mother dig through. He says leaks of documents continued after his mother was assassinated.
There was a party held to celebrate the closing of financing for the deal, he tells the inquiry. Before the assassination, the fear was that Electrogas would go into default. After the murder, the government extended the financing deal.
[In December 2017, the government and Electrogas signed a security of supply deal.]
There were 138 guests at that party, including Joseph Muscat, his wife Michelle, Charlene Bianco Farrugia and Neville Gafa. Mark and Joe Gasan were also invited, he says.
The party was organised by Yorgen Fenech, who issued the instructions “include all government of Malta people on the Portomaso list”, Matthew Caruana Galizia says.
Further documents
2.24pm Vella presents other documents related to Ronnie Vella [who will be testifying today and is not related to Corinne Vella] as well as a list of people who had government email addresses, including Joseph Muscat’s wife Michelle.
Michelle Muscat’s email address had a ‘c’ in the middle of it.
Bedingfield's blog posts
2.20pm One of Caruana Galizia’s sisters, Corinne Vella, presents the inquiry with a copy of a blog post published by Glenn Bedingfield on his blog some years ago. Bedingfield, who is now the government whip and who testified before the inquiry last week, was an OPM official when he published the post.
Vella says that Bedingfield's blog featured hundreds of posts with the word "Daphne" in the headline.
Court in session
2.14pm All three board of inquiry members are in court and today's session can begin. Reminder: the inquiry is chaired by judge Michael Mallia, with chief justice emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino and madam justice Abigail Lofaro serving as its other two members.
Family in the courtroom
2.09pm Daphne Caruana Galizia’s parents and sisters are present, as is her husband [and lawyer] Peter.
Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Therese Comodini Cachia and Andrew Borg Cardona are all here, on the family’s behalf. Lawyer Maurizio Cordina is in the courtroom, on behalf of the office of the state advocate.
About the witnesses
2.03pm Bianco Farrugia worked as an assistant to Keith Schembri when he was the chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister. She is also listed as a board member at the Malta Freeport.
Earlier this week, Times of Malta revealed that Caruana Galizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma had a meeting with Bianco Farrugia at the OPM after Caruana Galizia had been killed. The meeting was set up by Yorgen Fenech, who is charged with complicity in the murder, and was about a roadworks issue Theuma wanted to raise.
Ronnie Vella worked as an enforcement officer at the Planning Authority. But the Caruana Galizia board of inquiry is probably more interested in knowing why he was inside Castille at 3.30am last November, when journalists were forbidden from leaving a press conference room for some time.
Times of Malta had revealed last November that Mr Vella was one of the men standing guard inside the room that night.
Welcome
1.59pm Welcome to this live blog, where we will be bringing you minute-by-minute updates from the Caruana Galizia inquiry.
As mentioned above, two witnesses - Charlene Bianco Farrugia and Ronnie Vella - are due to testify today.
We know that Bianco Farrugia is being assisted by lawyer Franco Galea. We still do not know if Vella will have a lawyer with him.