Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca were on Monday charged with the attempted bribery of Times of Malta journalist Ivan Martin.  

The pair, who are representing murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, denied the charges in front of magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras.  

Taking to the witness stand, Martin recounted how he had first established contact with Mercieca in May 2020 to get his reaction to a story about him leaving the Attorney General’s office to join Fenech’s defence team.  

Martin said he had bumped into Mercieca at the end of last summer and had discussed meeting for a coffee.  

Two such meetings took place, during which Martin says he discussed the possibility about getting some tips about stories linked to Fenech’s case.  

He said this was standard practice, as Times of Malta journalists are trained to always understand both sides of the story.  

Another meeting took place at Mercieca’s Valletta office on October 30. During this meeting, Martin said Mercieca provided him with some leads and other bits of information, some of which he was interested in pursuing.  

Martin said there was one aspect in particular that interested him for an immediate article, and he set about verifying the information given by Mercieca.  

The journalist said he managed to confirm some details but was still shaky on others. That Saturday, Martin said he sent Mercieca an early draft of the story, informing him he had some questions as he was still unclear about some facts.  

The following Monday, Martin said he received a WhatsApp message from Mercieca, asking if he was free to meet up.  

The journalist said Caruana Curran was present for this second meeting.  

He said they initially discussed the earlier story draft he had sent, with the lawyers informing him they had liked it.  

Aim to undermine Melvin Theuma

Martin said the pair then explained how they wanted a series of such stories written as part of a campaign, with the ultimate aim of undermining the credibility of state witness Melvin Theuma, who was given a presidential pardon to testify against their client in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case.  

The journalist said that while he was willing to hear the lawyers out, the Times of Malta does not serialise stories or layer them in a premeditated way. 

During the meeting, Martin said Caruana Curran expressed concern about the media’s reporting of his client’s case.  

He recalled how at the end of the meeting, whilst still chatting with Mercieca, he saw Caruana Curran reaching for what he initially thought were some papers or small post-it notes.  

Martin said he did not associate the colour of those papers with money, as he had never seen money that colour before.  

The journalist said when he realised that Caruana Curran had handed him between two to four €500 notes, he instantly handed them back to the lawyer.  

“I was unnerved, it was the first time someone had ever given me that amount of money. For someone like me it is quite a lot of money.” 

Martin said he made it clear to the lawyer that the only people who pay him are his employers Times of Malta. 

The journalist said Caruana Curran said "time costs money", and was also apologetic, saying he never dealt with a journalist before.  

Martin said he immediately phoned his superiors to tell them what had happened.  
Taking to the witness stand, Times of Malta news editor Diana Cacciottolo confirmed she was contacted by Martin immediately after the meeting.  

She said she was aware Martin was in contact with Mercieca and was going to meet him that day.  

The Times of Malta news editor said she contacted Caruana Curran that same day to make it clear to him that what had happened was unacceptable. She also sought his reaction for the purpose of writing an article about the incident.  

“We viewed it as being in the public interest. We felt we needed to tell this story. I asked him for his explanation, which he later sent by e-mail”.  

Cacciottolo said the lawyer had confirmed in the e-mail that he had offered Martin money.  

The following day, the lawyers sent out a “slightly altered” version of events.  

Times of Malta editor-in-chief Herman Grech recalled how he had asked Martin to head to the office after learning of the incident.  

Grech said he asked the journalist for an explanation of what happened, and also asked Martin to put down his account of events in writing. The editor said he was aware Martin was in contact with Fenech's defence team.  

Grech said he had subsequently confirmed to the police that journalists cannot receive payments for outside work without prior approval from an editor or Times of Malta’s human resources department.  

The Times of Malta editor-in-chief said he told the police that it is a journalist’s job to meet all parties involved in a story.  

In earlier testimony, inspector Anthony Scerri said a police investigation was launched after Times of Malta had published an article exposing the incident.  

Scerri said the police had spoken to the journalist and his superiors, as well as the two lawyers present during the November meeting.  

The inspector said Caruana Curran had confirmed to the police that he had offered the journalist €500, but denied doing this with any bad intentions. The lawyer said he had entered the meeting between Martin and Mercieca after it was already under way.  

The lawyer confirmed there was no agreement for Martin to carry out work for them, Scerri said.  

According to the inspector, Mercieca gave “contradictory statements”, initially saying he did not know his colleague was going to offer money, then later saying he knew why the money was going to be given to Martin.  

The pair’s lawyers Stephen Tonna Lowell and Giannella de Marco objected to the fact that they had not yet been given access to the statement Martin gave to the police.  

The case continues on February 17.