December 1: Muscat to step down

Joseph Muscat announces he will step down as prime minister until his successor is chosen in a leadership process in January.

“This is what the country needs at the moment,” he says in a televised address to the country at the end of another turbulent day in Maltese politics.

Amid unprecedented pressure, Muscat pledges he will first resign as leader of the Labour Party on January 12 and “in the days after” will resign as prime minister.

“In the meantime, I will continue to carry out my responsibilities as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party. I am ensuring stability in the leadership of the country,” he says.

December 2: Protesters block MPs inside parliament

Furious protesters prevent MPs from leaving Parliament during a demonstration demanding the immediate resignation of Joseph Muscat.

In a sign of tension, Labour MP Clifton Grima and Nationalist MP Karol Aqulina are at one point seen shoving each other, before shaking hands.

Protesters block one of the exits, trapping MPs behind the barricades between Freedom Square and Ordnance Street and even throw eggs at government MPs.

In anticipation of the protest, police ask shops nearby to close at 3pm.

A Times of Malta front page exposing the letter found by police in Fenech’s property.A Times of Malta front page exposing the letter found by police in Fenech’s property.

December 3: Letter links Fenech and Schembri to murder

A letter found by the police during searches of murder suspect Yorgen Fenech’s Portomaso property implicates both the millionaire business magnate and the prime minister’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The letter, hand-written by Melvin Theuma, the middleman granted a presidential pardon by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, claims both Fenech and Schembri ordered and funded the October 2017 car bombing.

In the letter, Theuma expresses his fears that the pair were planning to “get rid” of him.

In the note obtained by Times of Malta, Theuma says he compiled recordings and a picture of him together with Mr Schembri inside Castille to ensure the “full story” emerges if he was “eliminated”.

December 4: ‘Tell them to get on with it. I want to kill Daphne’

In a chilling testimony, the assassination middleman details how he had been directed by Yorgen Fenech to commission the hit with the words “get on with it. I want to kill Daphne”.

Theuma said he hadn’t been paid one cent for his own part in the murder

Theuma recounted the sequence of events leading up to and after the October 2017 murder, including how he arranged payments of over €150,000 to the three men alleged to have carried out the car bomb that killed the 53-year-old journalist.

In his testimony, the Birkirkara taxi driver said he hadn’t been paid “one cent” for his own part in the murder and described his “friend”, multi-millionaire Tumas magnate Fenech, as the “only mastermind”.

December 5: Schembri ‘fed me details’ of probe

The alleged mastermind in the murder of Caruana Galizia claims Schembri used to constantly feed him key details he had obtained through his “close relationship” with leading investigator Keith Arnaud.

Fenech testifies in court under oath that Schembri had even informed him his phone was being tapped and tried to deliver notes to him while under investigation.

Taking the witness stand in the constitutional case he has filed calling for the removal of Arnaud from the murder investigation, Fenech divulges information allegedly passed on to him by Schembri.

This, he says, was proof the inspector was “not in a position to investigate fairly”.

December 6: Fearne launches leadership bid, favourite to become PM

Chris Fearne announces he will contest the Labour leadership race, with the momentum behind him to succeed Joseph Muscat as prime minister in January.

Fearne pledged to deliver full justice, to bring integrity to the country’s institutions, to carry the weight that the country would put on his shoulders, and that the same responsibility is also lifted by others.

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