Melvin Theuma’s mentor testifies about disgraced commissioner’s botched intervention in Daphne murder investigation

Updated – article has been amended to include additional information about the rest of the hearing on Saturday afternoon.

Edwin Brincat, the longtime friend and mentor of pardoned middleman Melvin Theuma, told jurors on Saturday how disgraced former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar entered the picture after Theuma had begun panicking about secret recordings linking Yorgen Fenech to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Brincat, known as il-Ġojja, was testifying in Fenech’s trial by jury. Fenech stands charged with complicity in Caruana Galizia’s voluntary homicide and criminal association. He denies the charges.

Theuma, who received a presidential pardon in 2019, has admitted acting as middleman between Fenech and the executors who killed Caruana Galizia.

Brincat told the court he had known Theuma since he was very young. He said Theuma worked with him at the Marsa horse racing track, helped him with horses and cars, and remained close to him for years.

“I trusted him, and he trusted me,” Brincat said, describing how Theuma would visit him repeatedly when he was “panicking” after the murder.

Brincat said Theuma approached him after the assassination and told him he was involved in the case. At the time, Theuma was worried that convicted killer Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, would obtain a pardon before he did because he believed Muscat was already speaking to police towards the beginning of 2018.

“He was out of his mind that day. He was crying and really worried. I remember asking him, ‘what the hell did you do?’ I couldn’t believe it,” Brincat told the court.

Asked what Theuma told him about his role, Brincat said Theuma described himself as “the broker for the deal”.

According to Brincat, Theuma said he was brokering the murder “on behalf of Yorgen Fenech with the Degiorgios”, passed money to the executors, and organised the deal.

He added that Theuma told him the money came from Fenech and was paid for the murder, though Brincat said he did not know how the money was passed on.

Brincat said Theuma also told him he had secret recordings of conversations with Fenech. Theuma wanted to go directly to the police with the tapes to seek a pardon, but Brincat advised him against it.

“I told him not to go because these people have power and contacts, and I was worried they just wouldn’t believe him,” Brincat said.

He said he did not initially believe the recordings existed and thought Theuma might have been making them up so Brincat would stop discouraging him from going to the police.

Brincat also told jurors that he did not trust the police to handle the recordings properly.

“To be honest, I didn’t trust the police to do their job. I was worried they would seize his tapes and destroy them,” he said.

Brincat said he later suggested Theuma tell Fenech about the recordings, thinking Fenech might use his contacts to help him. Theuma later told Brincat he had gone to Portomaso with the tapes.

The court then turned to Cutajar’s involvement.

Brincat said he knew Cutajar from years earlier, including through a robbery case in which Cutajar had been involved when he was still an inspector. He denied being close friends with him.

The prosecution played a recording of a call between Brincat and Cutajar, recorded the day before Brincat testified in the compilation of evidence. Because of the poor quality of the recording and the lack of publicly available transcripts, it was particularly difficult to understand the details of the conversation.

The call appeared to show Brincat and Cutajar discussing previous meetings prior to Brincat’s testimony the following day, a traffic contravention Brincat had raised with Cutajar, and the question of what Theuma had in his recordings.

Brincat said he had gone to Cutajar over a traffic fine that could have led to a suspended licence. During that conversation, Cutajar asked him about Theuma’s case.

“He was sure that I knew about Melvin’s involvement in the case, and that Melvin had these recordings on him,” Brincat said.

Brincat testified that Cutajar indicated he could help him with the fine if Brincat helped him obtain information about Theuma. The witness also said he told Cutajar he knew nothing about Theuma, though he was quick to add that Cutajar did not believe him.

The witness added that Cutajar wanted him to find out what Theuma had and pass that information back to him. Brincat said Cutajar tried to reassure him that he would not be implicated if he exposed Theuma.

Brincat insisted that Cutajar never told him about Theuma’s impending arrest and that he avoided him to buy himself and his close friend more time.

“I was telling Melvin not to go to the police, so I was certainly not going to speak to Cutajar about Melvin’s involvement,” he said.

After telling Theuma that the former commissioner knew about the tapes, Brincat said Theuma became “spooked”.

Asked why he warned Theuma to take care of the recordings, Brincat said: “Since powerful people were involved in the murder, it was possible that those tapes could have been found and destroyed.”

The trial continued on Saturday afternoon.

However, reporters were banned from reporting on the exact contents of an intercepted phone call between Brincat and Cutajar due to the fact that Cutajar has not yet testified during the trial. The court ordered the press to only refer to the general contents of the call without going into specifics.

Cutajar is now expected to testify on Monday.