Melvin Theuma, the middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination had told Yorgen Fenech, the business tycoon accused of complicity in the plot, that he believed “four others” were involved in the murder.

This fresh snippet of information emerged during an almost five-hour long sitting on Thursday in the compilation of evidence against Mr Fenech. During the session, another of the recordings made surreptitiously by Mr Theuma, was played out in court.

Mr Theuma was given a presidential pardon last November to reveal all about the murder of the journalist in October 2017.

"Jien għalija hemm erbgħa oħra" (I believe there are four others), Mr Theuma was heard telling Mr Fenech when the two were discussing the case in the aftermath of the assassination, primarily those revolving around the persistent request by two of the alleged hitmen, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, to obtain bail.

The brothers had been arrested alongside the third alleged hitman, Vincent Muscat, in December 2017 and all three have remained under preventive arrest ever since.

Yet, when pressed by the prosecution as well as by parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi, the witness said the reference to the “other four” was on account of what he had heard in the news.

“It’s probably because of what I heard in the news and in the shops. People were talking and saying others were involved in the crime. But on oath, I was alone in it, I swear," Mr Theuma said.

I had no idea how the Degiorgios were going to go about the murder

"Perhaps the Degiorgios had roped in another four with them," he continued. "I had no idea how the Degiorgios were going to go about the murder."

“Maybe” other people had approached the Degiorgios to carry out the murder, Mr Theuma said when pressed further by Dr Azzopardi.

Thursday’s recording featured a conversation which took place some time in 2018 or 2019 inside Mr Fenech’s kitchen at his Żebbug farmhouse, where the bail issue regarding the Degiorgios once again appeared to be troubling the middleman.

Theuma’s voice wavered as he told the court how after the assassination he had been unable to sleep and had lapsed into personal neglect. 

"I was constantly living in fear. I had had enough," he said, adding that he had felt trapped, going back and forth between the Degiorgios in jail and Fenech, ferrying their constant requests for money and bail.

More than once he had considered going to the police to tell all, and to “speak to you, sir,” Theuma told Inspector Arnaud, in an unsteady voice.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in October, 2017. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

The Cardona connection

Former Minister Chris Cardona’s name once again featured during the middleman’s testimony, this time in relation to a request for assistance with the bail issue, allegedly passed on to the then-minister from the hitmen in jail.

“No one could help them better than him since he is familiar with the courts. He knows all judges,” Mr Theuma said in the recording.

However, that request had apparently been “ignored” by Dr Cardona, the middleman explained, recalling how Mario Degiorgio had once told him, “They helped everyone but they found no help.” [Huma qdew lil kulħadd, u huma ma sabux għajnuna.]

On another occasion, the Degiorgios had allegedly passed on the message that, “gewwa huma, u ġewwa kulħadd magħhom” (if they're in prison, others will follow).

Mr Theuma explained that he had taken that as a “polite” message directed towards him.

Asked by Dr Azzopardi about the mention of an “Alex” in the recording and whether that could have meant Alex [Muscat] “the former OPM Chief of Staff’s assistant”, Mr Theuma said he had no idea of any “Alex” linked to the murder plot.

At the end of Thursday’s sitting, Magistrate Rachel Montebello declared that the three men whose names often crept up in the middleman’s testimony, namely Keith Schembri, OPM official Kenneth Camilleri and Johann Cremona (involved in the gaming scene) were to be brought in to testify.

The middleman will be back in court to resume his testimony on March 27 when the case continues.

Inspectors Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra prosecuted, assisted by deputy AG Philip Galea Farrugia.

Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Marion Camilleri were defence counsel.

Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Eve Borg Costanzi, Therese Comodini Cachia and Peter Caruana Galizia are parte civile.