Live blog: Ex-OPM bodyguard testifies in Yorgen Fenech trial after tense sitting
Witness accuses defence lawyers of colluding with Schembri as trial enters 21st day
The trial of Yorgen Fenech continues on Friday after jurors spent the week hearing secret recordings and testimony about clandestine meetings held in the aftermath of Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder.
Fenech denies complicity in the October 2017 murder. He was charged after self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma turned state witness and told police the businessman had paid €150,000 for the assassination.
Kenneth Camilleri, a bodyguard to the then-prime minister Joseph Muscat, is among the witnesses testifying on Friday. He told the court he met Theuma on Schembri’s instructions in the year after the murder.
Earlier, Johann Cremona, a go-between for several key figures linked to the case, finished his three-day testimony.
So far, on Friday:
- Kenneth Camilleri said Keith Schembri instructed him in 2018 to accompany Johann Cremona and “calm someone”, without telling him the person was Melvin Theuma.
- At the meeting, Theuma repeatedly asked Camilleri to “sort out” bail for the Degiorgio brothers, leaving Camilleri shocked.
- Johann Cremona alleged that Keith Schembri told him that defence lawyers Charles Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran had met him before Schembri's testimony in 2020.
- Earlier, jurors heard more secretly recorded conversations involving Melvin Theuma, including references to wanting to humiliate former prime minister Joseph Muscat in parliament.
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'As long as you're with this man, don't come near me'
3.15pm Kenneth Camilleri, a former member of then-prime minister Joseph Muscat’s security detail, takes the stand.
Camilleri says that when he first met Melvin Theuma in Żurrieq, he told him: “Yes, I’ll see what I can arrange.”
He says their last meeting took place while he was on duty with the prime minister at parliament. Johann Cremona called him asking to meet, and Camilleri told him he was having a coffee near parliament.
Shortly afterwards, he saw Cremona and Theuma approaching together.
Camilleri says Theuma again raised the issue of bail for the Degiorgio brothers. He recalls references to bags of money and to (then) Judge Mizzi during the conversation.
Camilleri says that following the encounter, he turned to Johann Cremona and told him: “As long as you’re with this man, don't come near me.”
Cremona did not reply, Camilleri testifies.
Cremona's phone
3.10pm Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco asks whether Johann Cremona's mobile phone was ever seized.
The judge says the court has Cremona's mobile phone call profile from the inquiry into alleged leaks from the murder investigation.
She says court expert Martina Bajda will carry out further checks in connection with screenshots discussed during the proceedings and prepare a report.
“We take it from there,” the judge says.
Back in Hall 22
3.05pm We are back in Hall 22. We are expecting Kenneth Camilleri, a former OPM security detail to continue his testimony.
Lunch break until 3pm
1pm We've broken up for lunch. While we're away, you can catch up on another major and ongoing story today: two police officers have been injured after shots were fired at a construction site in Ta' Giorni.
A second chance meeting with Theuma
1pm Camilleri says that two to three days later, he also sought out Johann Cremona "to try to discover why I was sent to that meeting".
Kenneth says he turned up at Johann’s garage unannounced, as he didn’t want to give him an excuse to say he wasn’t there.
He says he spotted Melvin Theuma in the middle of the garage.
"I went out to tell Melvin not to approach me again," he said. "He was once again in a panic, like the first time we met, I told him: 'Do not approach me, we have no reason to speak again,'.
Camilleri says after that, he walked out. “I did not even given him chance to speak to me.”
Camilleri says of this second encounter, “he [Melvin] was in a panic, and I was in an even bigger one.”
Camilleri 'sought out' Keith Schembri
12.53pm Camilleri tells the jury he was shocked by this meeting.
"My question was, why did Keith send me there?" he tells them.
After the meeting, Johann Cremona dropped him home.
"What was said in the car ride back?" the prosecution asks.
"I was still shocked," Camilleri replies. "Perhaps Johann asked me what had happened, but I cut off the conversation. The following day I sought out Keith Schembri at work".
Questioned on bail
12.50pm Prosecutors ask Kenneth Camilleri about Melvin Theuma's alleged request for bail for the hitmen.
Camilleri says Theuma did not explain why he wanted bail or why he was asking him.
Asked whether he or Keith Schembri had the power to grant bail, Camilleri replies: "I don't think so, no."
He also tells the court he did not promise he could grant bail.
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Bail 'hassle' continues
12.48pm Camilleri says that after the call, Melvin Theuma "kept on hassling me about the bail".
"I told him: 'We will see'. I wanted to get rid of him, that’s why I told him that. I got back into the car and told Johann to drive off."
Kenneth Camilleri says the whole encounter took about 10 minutes.
'I'm in a meeting'
12.45pm Kenneth Camilleri describes stepping away from Melvin Theuma and phoning Keith Schembri out of Theuma's earshot.
"I told Keith, 'I need to speak to you.' Keith said: 'I am in a meeting,' then hung up the phone."
'See what you can do to get them bail'
12.42pm The prosecution asks Kenneth Camilleri what Melvin Theuma said.
"He told me see what you are going to do to sort out bail," Camilleri replies. "I said, bail for who? Melvin said the Degiorgios [hitmen]."
Camilleri said he was shocked. "I knew the Degiorgios were in prison. He kept saying the same thing: 'See what you are going to do to get them bail.'"
Melvin looked 'angry or panicked'
12.40pm Once they arrived in Żurrieq, Johann Cremona phoned Melvin Theuma to tell him they had arrived. "Melvin Theuma approached the car, I got out of the car to speak to him. He looked like he was angry or panicked," Camilleri tells the court.
Arranging a meeting
12.28pm Camilleri explains what happened after he received his instructions from Keith Schembri. Camilleri phoned Johann Cremona and details to the jury what was said on that call.
"I said, Keith phoned me, and said you would pick me up. He [Johann] said: 'I’m coming'."
He further explains that 8.30pm wasn’t that unusual time wise, it was summer and still light.
He said hardly any words were said during the drive to meet Melvin Theuma. Kenneth says he didn’t ask where they were going or who they were going to meet.
'No idea'
12.32pm The prosecution asks Camilleri if he ever mentioned Melvin Theuma’s name. "As far as I remember, he never mentioned Melvin Theuma," he replies. "He told me to contact Johann Cremona to calm someone down."
Then a series of questions, answered with the same reply.
Prosecution: How did Keith Schembri know Johann Cremona?
Camilleri: No idea.
Pros: From what you knew, who could have told Keith Schembri about Johann Cremona?
Camilleri: No idea.
Pros: Who could have told Keith Schembri that Johann Cremona knows Melvin Theuma.
Camilleri: No idea.
Pros: What connection did Johann Cremona and Melvin Theuma have. Did they have a common friend?
Camilleri: No idea
Obeyed without question
12.32pm The prosecution asks Kenneth Camilleri whether Keith Schembri had given him similar instructions in the past.
Camilleri says he had previously been asked by Schembri to speak to other people.
Asked whether he would carry out Schembri's instructions without questioning them, Camilleri replies: "Yes."
Work 'for the party'
12.26pm Kenneth Camilleri tells jurors he had never heard of Melvin Theuma before receiving a call from Keith Schembri in the summer of 2018.
The prosecution asks the witness to try to remember the exact words from this call.
"He told me Ic-cigar [Johann Cremona’s nickname] phoned, you are going to go together to calm down someone."
The prosecution asks him if Schembri said why the person needed calming.
"No. There were times when “for the party”, I would be asked to go speak to people. I worked in the prime minister’s office," he said.
He tells the court he assumed Johann Cremona was coming along because he knew where Theuma lived.
Relationship with Schembri
12.20pm Kenneth Camilleri tells the court Johann Cremona picked him up in Tarxien before taking him to meet Melvin Theuma.
Questioned about his relationship with Keith Schembri, Camilleri says they were "not close" despite knowing each other from around 2013.
"We used to say good morning to each other," he says.
"We used to come across each other at work, that's about it. There was just small talk, nothing more than that," he says. He added that any phone calls between them were related to work.
Camilleri also says he knew Johann Cremona through Cremona's father and that they remained in contact.
Schembri sent Camilleri to 'calm someone'
12.16pm The former police constable tells jurors he was part of then prime minister Joseph Muscat's security detail in 2018.
He had served in the police force for more than 20 years before leaving at the start of 2019.
Asked about his involvement in the case, Camilleri says it began when he received a phone call from then chief of staff Keith Schembri one evening in the summer of 2018.
Camilleri says Schembri told him to go and "calm someone", explaining he had contacted Johann Cremona because he knew where Melvin Theuma lived.
Next witness: Kenneth Camilleri
12.13pm The next witness takes the stand. It's Kenneth Camilleri, a former bodyguard to the then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Kenneth Camilleri, pictured in a previous court sitting. Photo: Matthew MirabelliContents of a lost phone
12.11pm A juror asks the Vodafone/Epic witness whether the company can retrieve the contents of a lost mobile phone.
The witness replies that operators do not have access to the contents stored on a device. They can only access activity such as calls, text messages and data sessions but not the content.
Asked whether he knows who can access such data, the witness says that is outside his area of expertise.
Cross-examination
12pm Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco questions the Vodafone witness about the mobile number identified in the call data request.
The witness confirms he does not know who the number belongs to.
De Marco notes that the phone's last recorded activity was at 5.03am on November 26, 2019, in Mellieħa. She also points out that while police requested signalling data up to December 23, 2019, the witness's report states that further signalling activity was recorded after that date.
The witness confirms this is correct. Earlier he had explained that this was because it was a replacement sim in a new phone.
Given the details, we think this is all referring to Keith Schembri's lost phone but this had not been said in court.
Request for data on a phone in November 2019
11.52am A Vodafone representative tells the court police requested call profiles and location data for a particular phone number in November 2019.
The witness says the request, submitted by lead investigator Keith Arnaud on December 23, covered a period of about two months starting on November 1, 2019.
He explains that call data records are retained for one year, while signalling data is typically kept for between 30 and 35 days.
The witness also says location data can only identify the general area where a device was used, rather than its precise location.
He explains that the “last signalling information” referenced in the report means the last ping the network had from that phone. The last signalling information was from a particular base station in Mellieħa.
The last activity was at 5.03am in the morning of November 26th. On the 18th December the same number started to be used, but from another device.
“This is the result of a sim replacement. When someone loses a mobile, they can keep the same number under a new sim card. This is perfectly normal,” the witness says.
We haven't been told who this number belongs to.
Next witness
11.38am The next witness is Mario Cordina. He’s an engineer, in 2019 he was an employee at Vodafone (now Epic). He’s giving a technical explanation about how base stations provide localised coverage, like a village. Whenever a device connected to the network sends a message or carries out a call, the information of the location of where the message or call took place is recorded.
'High risk'
11.34am An internal BOV e-mail is read out, in which they say they will be terminating their relationship with Melvin Theuma because he is viewed as “high-risk”. Chetcuti says he does not remember what led to the high-risk classification.
Loan application turned down
11.28am One document shows Melvin Theuma had a loan application for €100,000 turned down by Bank of Valletta.
Next witness
11.20am The next witness takes the stand. It's Bank of Valletta representative Silvio Chetcuti. Before he begins, he asks to be exempted from professional secrecy obligations. He presents some financial statements of Melvin Theuma and his relatives.
Johann Cremona's testimony ends
11.18am After three days and one dramatic outburst, Johann Cremona's testimony has come to an end. The fall out of what he revealed about an alleged meeting between Schembri and Fenech's defence lawyers has likely only begun. We'll keep you updated.
Coffee break
11am We're just on a coffee break. Court should resume soon.
Cross-examination continues
10.45am The cross examination continues. Gianella de Marco asks if he is still in communication with Keith Schembri and to clarify whether this screenshot or message was sent to him by Keith Schembri.
Cremona answers: "This was a while ago".
Attorney General lawyer Godwin Cini asks: "Did someone try to approach you before testifying?"
Cremona: "No".
Judge seeks verification
10.41am Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco tells Johann Cremona: "You are acting like Melvin now."
Judge Edwina Grima immediately intervenes: "No more comments. Stop."
The judge also instructs a court expert to examine whether the communication referred to by Cremona can be traced.
Judge rebukes defence lawyer
10.35am Judge Edwina Grima tells defence lawyer Charles Mercieca there is "nothing funny here" after noticing him laughing during Johann Cremona's evidence.
The judge then asks Cremona whether Keith Schembri had told him if the defence lawyers communicated with him again.
Cremona replies that Schembri told him the lawyers met him at an office in Floriana but says he was not told what was discussed.
Cremona alleges pre-testimony meeting between Schembri, Fenech's lawyers
10.27am The outburst continues.
Johann Cremona: This screenshot has been in my pocket since I first came to testify here. I was not going to show it.
He claims defence lawyers Charles Mercieca and Gianluca Caruana Curran had a clandestine meeting with Keith Schembri on the eve of his testimony in 2020.
Judge Edwina Grima: How do you know this?
Cremona: Keith Schembri told me. I am fed up, I am fed up.
The judge then questions Cremona about messages and phone calls exchanged with Schembri on December 25 and 26, asking why Schembri had written: "Can you believe this?"
It is still unclear from where we are sitting what is in this screenshot.
'I am fed up!'
10.24am Johann Cremona is brandishing a screenshot of something sent to him by Keith Schembri.
“I am fed up!" he exclaims. "This is too much"
He gives a copy of this screenshot to the judge, who says, "Calm down. Johann".
“They spent 10 months paying the media to damage me,” Cremona claims.
The judge asks him: "Where did you get this screenshot from?"
Cremona: "Keith Schembri sent it to me".
Witness loses his cool
10.22am A recording has been played out in court, which we cannot report. But the witness loses his composure.
"I will show you who communicated with Keith Schembri," he gesticulates towards defence lawyer Charles Mercieca. "You think you are so smart!"
Chats with Keith
10.11am The defence questions Johann Cremona about messages exchanged with Keith Schembri, including one in which the pair discussed “not going to testify”.
De Marco: Did you ever discuss what you were going to say before testifying?
Cremona: No.
Asked by the judge why he told Schembri he did not want to testify, Cremona replies that he "had no one to speak to" about the case and that "was mentioned everywhere" [in the case]
Cremona insists he did nothing wrong by communicating with Schembri, saying there was no court order preventing them from speaking.
De Marco also asks about a message from Schembri saying, "I want to understand more." Asked what Schembri meant, Cremona says he does not know.
Keith Schembri meeting
10.08am The defence questions Johann Cremona about his interactions with Keith Schembri, asking whether the former chief of staff greeted him on the steps of Castille or offered him an espresso during a visit.
Cremona says he cannot remember being offered a coffee but recalls discussing a "lottery tender" with Schembri.
Asked whether he returned to Castille or had struck up a friendship with Schembri, Cremona says no.
He tells the court Schembri would contact him only when he had been unable to reach Yorgen Fenech and wanted to know whether Cremona had heard from him.
Joseph Muscat referred to in recording
10.05am A recording is played out in court in which former prime minister Joseph Muscat is mentioned. In it Melvin Theuma appears to say he wants to humiliate Muscat by making him "shit in parliament".
Theuma suggests that he would approach then opposition leader Simon Busuttil and have him raise questions in parliament about a possible presidential pardon.
'Coked up' Yorgen
9.48am The defence asks Cremona who had tasked him with calming Melvin Theuma. Gianella de Marco says Cremona was very disparaging towards Fenech in the recordings, by saying things like he was “coked up”. “How were you protecting your business if you were disparaging Yorgen [in the recordings]?” she asks.
Background: Johann Cremona previously said he wanted to keep Melvin calm to stop him speaking to the police and endangering a joint business he had with Yorgen Fenech.
Who did they kill for?
9.45am Johann Cremona says there was a stage when middleman Melvin Theuma doubted whether the Degiorgio’s carried out the murder on his behalf. This was when Theuma told him that the Degiorgios were demanding €400,000 from former economy minister Chris Cardona to fund their trial.
Background: Chris Cardona, a former Labour minister, was questioned by police during the murder investigation but has never been charged and has consistently denied any involvement in Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination.
Bail money
9.40am The defence revisits a meeting between Kenneth Camilleri and Melvin Theuma in Valletta.
Johann Cremona recalls overhearing the pair discussing bail for the Degiorgio brothers (hitmen), with references also made to money.
He tells the court that, at that stage, he did not know Theuma was involved in Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder.
Who's Who
9.36am This stage of the trial has focused on meetings between murder middleman Melvin Theuma and several go-between figures linked to the case.
You can read more about them in Jacob Borg's Who's Who guide to the trial.
'Boxes of money'
9.33am De Marco asks Johann Cremona whether he is sure he never heard Kenneth Camilleri and Melvin Theuma discuss bail during a meeting between them.
Jurors are played a recording in which Cremona appears to describe the bail discussion, including references to "boxes of money".
Cremona says he was recounting what Theuma had previously told him, rather than something he had witnessed first-hand.
He also tells the court it was difficult to deal with Theuma at the time, describing him as "depressed".
Recording reference Schembri
9.28am Jurors hear another excerpt from Melvin Theuma's secretly recorded conversations.
In the recording, a voice says: "Just like Keith sent him [Kenneth] to calm you."
Defence lawyer Giannella de Marco suggests the exchange shows Johann Cremona was "reinforcing" the claim that Keith Schembri had sent Kenneth Camilleri to reassure Theuma.
Steering the conversation
9.26am De Marco suggests that whenever Melvin Theuma mentioned Keith Schembri in the secretly recorded conversations, Johann Cremona steered the discussion back towards Yorgen Fenech.
Cremona rejects the suggestion, insisting that was not the case.
Questions over Schembri contact
9.21am Johann Cremona tells the court he knew Kenneth Camilleri because he was friends with his father.
Gianella de Marco: Did Keith Schembri phone you to say Kenneth is coming, take care of him?
Johann Cremona: No
G: Keith Schembri has your number…
J: Yes, I do not know where he got my number from.
J: Everyone was coming to me…Keith Schembri came to me when Yorgen was not answering his phone. Ray Aquilina [former head of police anti-money laundering unit] came to me asking for his number.
Some background on this cross examination: Keith Schembri is alleged to have instructed Kenneth Camilleri in 2018 to get in contact with Johann Cremona, so Camilleri could meet murder middleman Melvin Theuma to “calm him”.
A meeting with Kenneth Camilleri
9.13am The defence is beginning with a meeting between Cremona and Kenneth Camilleri, a bodyguard to the then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Cross examination
9.11am Today's session has begun and defence lawyer Gianella de Marco has started her cross examination.
What happened yesterday?
9.08pm As well as Johann Cremona's testimony, the jury has heard conversations he held with Melvin Theuma, which were secretly recorded.
- Jurors heard recordings of Melvin Theuma saying he would demand €100,000 from Keith Schembri and claiming "Yorgen engaged them" in reference to the convicted hitmen.
- In another recording, Theuma said of the hitmen: "They love killing, they love money", while elsewhere he was heard saying of Yorgen Fenech: "He shouldn't have killed her."
- Johann Cremona maintained that much of what he told Theuma was bluff intended to calm him.
You can read a wrap of yesterday's testimony here.
Johann Cremona, the go-between
8.50am Over the last three days, the jury has heard evidence from Johann Cremona, a go-between for several key figures implicated in the murder.
A business partner of Fenech, Cremona was also a confidante of Melvin Theuma and in contact with Keith Schembri, the chief of staff of former prime minister Joseph Muscat.
His cross-examination is expected to continue this morning.
Good morning
8.45am Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Yorgen Fenech's trial for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Today's sitting should begin at 9am. We'll bring you the latest developments from Hall 22 as they happen.