Magistrate Doreen Clarke is leading an inquiry into claims that Yorgen Fenech paid Opposition leader Adrian Delia to stop outspoken politician David Casa from getting elected to the European Parliament.

Source said the inquiry was launched hours after the police started their own investigation into the matter on June 18. 

The inquiry comes less than a week after Daphne Caruana Galizia murder middleman Melvin Theuma testified on the matter in a public inquiry.

Theuma told the public inquiry that Fenech had said that he had offered tens of thousands of Euros to the PN in a bid to block Casa’s MEP hopes. 

Last Wednesday, Theuma, a state witness in the Caruana Galizia murder case, said in court that Fenech was angered by Casa's interest in his offshore company 17 Black, and had offered the PN money to ensure the MEP was not re-elected.

Reacting, Casa said that the allegation was not new but that attempts to silence him had "clearly failed".

Thake reacted by calling for a police and internal party investigation into the matter.  

Testifying in court on Monday, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri also claimed to have been told by Fenech about a €50,000 offer to stop Casa’s re-election.

Schembri also claimed that Pierre Portelli, the former head of party media at the PN, used to go to Fenech’s to regularly collect €20,000.

Delia and Portelli have both denied the allegations in sworn affidavits.

PN MP David Thake had last year also raised the matter on live television, questioning whether it was true that Fenech had offered some €50,000 to the PN leader.  

Thake met with the police on the weekend over the matter.