How Castille leaked sensitive police information on alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech

Lead police investigator Keith Arnaud told jurors on Monday afternoon that police repeatedly briefed Castille on developments in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder investigation, with phone evidence extracted from alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech’s phone showing that disgraced former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri was in direct contact with Fenech shortly before his arrest.

Arnaud was testifying in the trial by jury against Fenech, who stands charged with complicity in the voluntary homicide of Caruana Galizia. Fenech denies the charges.

The afternoon sitting opened with the prosecution returning to meetings held between police investigators and the Office of the Prime Minister while the investigation was ongoing.

Arnaud said the police had first gone to Castille because they needed a formal greenlight on convicted killer Vince Muscat’s request for a presidential pardon. Muscat was one of the three men later convicted of executing the car bombing.

According to Arnaud, no names of suspects were given during the first meeting with the Office of the Prime Minister. However, in later meetings, investigators shared intelligence and further details, while Europol was urging Maltese investigators to move forward with clearer action plans.

One key meeting was held on 26 April 2018 after Muscat began speaking to police. Arnaud said the meeting involved senior police officials, disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and his chief of staff. Another meeting was held on 28 April, with the Attorney General, Owen Bonnici and Louis Grech also involved.

Arnaud said Castille had “redlighted” Muscat’s pardon request because most of what he had provided was hearsay and police needed more corroborating evidence.

He described being caught between Europol’s pressure for an updated action plan and Castille’s insistence on further evidence before issuing a pardon. If the investigation remained stalled, he said, he feared Malta could lose Europol’s support.

Arnaud said the police later shifted to a money laundering investigation against Melvin Theuma, the murder middleman, so they could arrest him on a parallel case and increase pressure on him.

The court was then shown Signal chats extracted from Fenech’s phone by Europol. These included chats between Fenech and his brother Franco, and between Fenech and his uncle, in which he discussed last-minute arrangements to leave Malta before his arrest on 20 November 2019.

The prosecution also referred to chats between Fenech and Schembri. In one message, Fenech told Schembri: “Don’t leave me alone, give me support.” Schembri replied that he was giving him as much support as he could but urged him to be aggressive and fight.

Fenech also sent Schembri a Times of Malta article and asked whether it would be better for him to leave, saying he needed time to seek advice. Schembri advised him against doing so, and later told the police that he was doing whatever he could to convince Fenech not to abscond.

Arnaud said Fenech later told police he had been in contact with Schembri throughout the evening and morning before his arrest, and that Schembri had updated him about what was going on and whether he was going to be raided.

When Schembri was questioned by police, Arnaud said, he confirmed he had been in contact with Fenech but claimed he was trying to convince him to stay in Malta because it would have been a serious problem for the government if a pardon was being discussed while Fenech fled.

The prosecution also presented call logs between Schembri and Fenech in the years leading up to Fenech’s arrest.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Giannella De Marco, Arnaud was pressed on whether the men later convicted of carrying out the murder were already known to police and the Malta Security Service before the assassination.

Arnaud confirmed that the Degiorgio brothers and Vincent Muscat were persons of interest in some cases and that their official phone numbers had been tapped, although he noted they used burner phones.

Asked whether they were being followed by the MSS before Caruana Galizia was killed, Arnaud said yes, although he was not certain who took that decision. Asked why neither police nor the MSS noticed what they were planning, Arnaud replied: “Unfortunately, yes.”

De Marco also questioned Arnaud about an Europol operational analysis report which, she said, referred to Schembri and former minister Chris Cardona. Arnaud said the report had never reached his desk at the time and that he only learned of it much later from the defence.

He said the report did not describe them as suspects, but as “potential instigators”, adding that it was not based on a Europol investigation but on material from Caruana Galizia’s phone and blog.

Pressing the witness further about why the police had not taken any action against Schembri and Cardona when Caruana Galizia’s blog also referred to both individuals hundreds of times, Arnaud was adamant that the police’s investigative work was guided first and foremost by the evidence which the police had at hand.

“…We are guided by the evidence we have on the site. God forbid our investigations had to depend on her blog or any other source like that. We are guided by the evidence, always,” Arnaud insisted.

The trial continues on Tuesday morning.