Updated 5.10pm with witness's name

A judge has put off the 2010 HSBC failed heist case indefinitely on grounds that the court still had to hear a new witness, Melvin Theuma, testify about the crime. 

Theuma, the middleman involved in Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder, allegedly told investigators when he was arrested in November 2019 that he had relevant information about certain serious crimes. One of those was the HSBC heist.

That information was given under the terms of the presidential pardon granted to Theuma in 2019, six years after the bill of indictment had been issued against Vince Muscat and Darren Debono.

The prosecution is now asking the court to authorise Theuma's testimony before the Magistrates' Court and to add his name to the list of witnesses in the trial.

Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, and Debono, known as it-Topo, are waiting for their trial over their alleged involvement in the failed 2010 heist. The two, along with Fabio Psaila, are believed to have broken into the bank headquarters in Qormi, before the police scuppered their plans. 

The unexpected legal twist surfaced on Thursday morning when Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti declared that the trial was being put off sine die.

The request by the Attorney General meant that the records of the case will now be sent back to the inquiring magistrate to gather fresh evidence.

Muscat has allegedly told police investigators that he can link two high-profile Labour politicians to the crime. Minister Carmelo Abela, a former HSBC employee, testified before an inquiring magistrate in connection with the security equipment he had access to. He has denied any connection to the crime. 

Alfred Degiorgio, one of the co-accused in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder said in March that he, too, could offer information about an armed robbery, which is understood to be a reference to the HSBC heist.