‘Betrayal’, panic, and blackmail: how the conspirators behind Daphne’s murder unravelled

During the second day of his lengthy court testimony on Saturday morning, Assistant Police Commissioner and head of the major crimes unit Keith Arnaud continued describing how the conspirators involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia began exposing details about the plot when the police were closing in on them.

After Vince Muscat, one of three executors who detonated the car bomb that killed Daphne, began talking to the police a few months after the murder occurred in October 2017, middleman Melvin Theuma was next to talk, becoming the key surviving link that eventually set the police on Fenech’s trail after he was granted a presidential pardon.

Fenech pleads not guilty to charges of voluntary homicide and criminal association.

Arnaud told the court that Theuma’s account was corroborated by Muscat, who confirmed that Theuma had never named Fenech to the Degiorgio brothers or Muscat. According to Arnaud, this reinforced Theuma’s fear that he was the only surviving link between the alleged mastermind and the executors, placing him in danger.

When Muscat sought a pardon, Theuma became convinced that Fenech would have him killed, Arnaud said. Theuma believed that Fenech’s friendship with former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri meant that state resources could be used against him.

Theuma also claimed that former OPM security officer Kenneth Camilleri and businessman Johann Cremona had attempted to calm him down, including by promising that the Degiorgio brothers would be granted bail and that all their issues would be resolved.

Arnaud said that conflicting versions from Camilleri, Cremona, and Theuma made it difficult to establish a precise date for these numerous attempts to calm Theuma down, who by now felt that he had been “betrayed” by Yorgen Fenech. Nonetheless, their testimonies did confirm that Camilleri and Cremona were aware of Theuma’s mental breakdown and were attempting to stymie it.

Camilleri, according to Arnaud, named Schembri as the person who had sent him to calm Theuma down, while insisting he knew nothing about the murder or any bail request and that instead he was only acting upon instructions to calm down a disgruntled accomplice.

Theuma’s sense of betrayal from Fenech and Schembri was based on the allegation that promised financial relief and bail from prison for the Degiorgio brothers never materialised, Arnaud told the court. He became increasingly desperate, started recording Fenech, and even prepared a will in the eventuality of his death.

The court also heard how Theuma later attempted to commit suicide. Arnaud said Theuma was regretful about his actions, wanted to ask the Caruana Galizia family for forgiveness, and was under pressure from both the Degiorgio brothers, who wanted money, and Fenech, who had an interest in keeping him quiet.

Jurors were then shown a letter found in Fenech’s Portomaso office. In the letter, Theuma identified himself as the middleman in the murder and told Fenech he had prepared evidence in case he was eliminated.

Theuma wrote that two people, identified in the letter as “YF and KS”, were “working on getting rid” of him. He also referred to a phantom job, recordings and a photo taken at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Arnaud said Theuma later explained that he had handed the letter to Fenech as a guarantee that, if anything happened to him, the information would be made public. It was, in effect, an attempt to blackmail the man he feared.

Theuma nevertheless insisted that Fenech was the only mastermind and that Schembri was not directly involved in commissioning the murder. In one recording, Arnaud said, Fenech allegedly told Theuma that Schembri “froze” when informed about the murder and said he should have known beforehand.

Arnaud also testified about the arrests that followed Theuma’s pardon in November 2019. Police extracted large amounts of data from Fenech’s phone, while medical practitioner Adrian Vella and Schembri were later arrested over alleged prohibited communication between Fenech and Schembri.

Vella told police that Fenech had asked him to collect documents from Schembri on 24 November. Police later searched Fenech’s phone and found a chat screenshot among around 150,000 photos which, Arnaud said, confirmed contact between Fenech and Schembri.

Arnaud told jurors that investigators concluded Fenech was receiving information about the police investigation through Schembri.

According to Arnaud, Keith Schembri claimed he was trying to convince Fenech not to abscond, denying that he was the source of leaks about the investigation.

The court also heard that police believed Fenech had discussed possible excuses or methods to leave Malta as the investigation closed in, including an overland route through Italy and a Fenech-owned chalet in France. Arnaud said these facts emerged from chats extracted from Fenech’s phone, despite Fenech denying that he planned to abscond.

The trial continues in the afternoon at 3pm.