Police on Tuesday denied a media report that they had offered immunity from prosecution to a Dutchman who claims to have evidence on the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.  

In a statement, the police shot down a report by the Malta Independent that the Maltese police have offered convicted fraudster Julian Hofstra some form of legal immunity in return for recordings of Melvin Theuma and information about his alleged links to former minister Konrad Mizzi.

In a brief statement shortly after the story was uploaded, the police categorically denied the report. 

Government sources confirmed that no such pardon or immunity had been approved by the Justice Ministry and that the matter had not been discussed at Cabinet.  

Last month, Times of Malta reported how a police inspector had been suspended as part of an ongoing probe into whether he leaked confidential information to Yorgen Fenech’s defence team.

Inspector Elton Taliana was held for around 13 hours in January after the police received information that he may have leaked details of an ongoing investigation into Hofstra.

The Dutch national has recently been linked to alleged secret recordings in connection with the Caruana Galizia murder case.

Local media have reported that the Dutch national allegedly claims to have recorded self-confessed for the murder middleman. The recordings allegedly point a finger of blame at former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.  

Meanwhile, the internal police probe is looking into whether sensitive information, suspected to have come from an active police file, was passed on to lawyer Charles Mercieca.

Mercieca, one of Fenech’s lawyers, was also interrogated by the police over the matter last month.