‘Delete WhatsApp’: Konrad Mizzi told Yorgen Fenech to erase messages

Disgraced former Labour minister Konrad Mizzi instructed Yorgen Fenech to delete WhatsApp messages after the businessman’s phone was stolen, according to exchanges presented to jurors during Fenech’s cross-examination on Saturday.

The messages emerged as prosecutor Godwin Cini grilled Fenech over his relationships with some of the country’s most senior political, police and regulatory officials in the years surrounding the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The court heard that after Fenech informed Mizzi that his phone had been stolen, the former minister replied: “Delete WhatsApp.”

Fenech told the court he could not remember whether he had followed the instruction. But prosecutors subsequently produced another exchange in which Mizzi told him to delete messages using his laptop.

Fenech replied: “Yes, phone is wiped.”

Asked why Mizzi was apparently so concerned about the messages, Fenech said he believed it was a matter of privacy. He categorically rejected a suggestion that Mizzi wanted the messages deleted because of Fenech’s involvement in the Electrogas power station project.

Fenech told the court he had met Mizzi through his work on Electrogas in 2013 and that their frequent meetings eventually developed into a friendship. He insisted, however, that he never had any commercial relationship with Mizzi or former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

The prosecution also produced messages exchanged between Fenech and then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.

In January 2019, after Muscat contacted Fenech, the businessman told him that his phone had been stolen in Miami and that he had “erased everything remotely”. Under questioning, Fenech said he could not remember what he meant.

Fenech also confirmed that he was part of a group chat with Muscat and Schembri, although he insisted he did not enjoy any special confidence with the then-prime minister.

The cross-examination then turned to Fenech’s extensive contacts within the police force.

He acknowledged his close friendship with former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta, who was involved in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation until he was removed because of a conflict of interest arising from his marriage to then-cabinet minister Justyne Caruana.

Fenech confirmed that he travelled abroad with Valletta, discussed personal matters with him and gave him free tickets for a Champions League match. His children jokingly referred to the senior police officer as “Uncle Silvio”.

Prosecutors also questioned Fenech over his contacts with former police superintendent Ray Aquilina, including communications through the encrypted Signal application.

Evidence presented in court showed that when Aquilina visited Fenech at Portomaso, Fenech instructed his secretary not to record the police officer’s name in the visitors’ register.

Fenech denied discussing middleman Melvin Theuma with Aquilina.

During another exchange, Fenech repeated his claim that Schembri, and not himself, was the mastermind behind Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Asked directly by Judge Edwina Grima who he believed the mastermind was, Fenech replied: “Keith Schembri, Madam Justice.”

Schembri denies any involvement in the assassination.

Fenech is pleading not guilty to complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder. His cross-examination is set to continue on Monday.