Repeated power cuts bring Yorgen Fenech trial to a temporary stop
Jurors were listening to audio recordings when the power went out
Updated 2.40pm
Malta’s courts were the latest victim of the widespread power cuts on Wednesday morning, with repeated outages bringing the trial of Yorgen Fenech to a temporary halt.
Jurors in the murder trial were listening to a series of audio recordings at the time of the first unexpected outage at 10.30am.
Although power was restored within moments, the presiding judge called for a 30 minute break to restore the technical equipment being used at the time of the outage.
A second outage happened later in the afternoon when the case was due to resume after lunch at 2.30pm. Instead jurors were told the case would not resume until the situation was resolved.
Gaming entrepreneur Johann Cremona was testifying at the time of the outages.
Prosecutors were questioning Cremona on his relationship with Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Blackouts continue throughout Wednesday morning
Enemalta’s live outage map on Wednesday morning showed power cuts throughout most of Valletta, describing it as a “high tension outage”.
The outage extended to Valletta’s neighbouring towns of Floriana, Ħamrun and Marsa, the Enemalta map indicated.
Malta has been struck by widespread power cuts in recent days, as record temperatures drove up demand for electricity.
With people across the country taking increasingly extreme steps as they seek shelter from the heat, Prime Minister Robert Abela offered an “unconditional” apology for the blackouts on Tuesday.