Where are the messages between Keith Schembri and Keith Arnaud? – defence asks

Yorgen Fenech’s defence questioned the disappearance of messages exchanged between disgraced former prime ministerial chief of staff Keith Schembri and lead murder investigator Keith Arnaud as it continued its final address to jurors on Saturday.

Defence lawyer Charles Mercieca said missing phones, deleted chats and witnesses who were never called to testify exposed serious gaps in the investigation into the 2017 assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“Did they tell you why the chief investigator, who according to Keith Schembri was a family friend, deleted all his WhatsApp and Signal chats with Schembri?” Mercieca asked.

He argued that investigators repeatedly failed to secure or preserve evidence that could have shed light on Schembri’s possible role in the case.

Mercieca referred to Schembri’s missing mobile phone, Kenneth Camilleri’s phone and a computer mouse reportedly found on Schembri’s desk without the corresponding laptop. He also questioned why Schembri’s personal doctor, Adrian Vella, was allowed to delete WhatsApp from his phone.

Investigators Arnaud and Kurt Zahra spent four hours searching Schembri’s Mellieħa home but collected no evidence, Mercieca said. The prosecution had also failed to present Schembri’s call records or those of businessman Johann Cremona, he added.

The lawyer noted that the magistrate leading the murder inquiry had ordered the preservation of Schembri’s call data in July 2018, while Schembri was still chief of staff to then-prime minister Joseph Muscat.

“While Keith Schembri was being investigated, while a magistrate was investigating his number, investigators met with him,” Mercieca told jurors.

He also alleged that Schembri and Cremona met before testifying to fabricate a document. The defence questioned why prosecutors did not address a police assessment indicating that Cremona could have been a source of leaks originating from the police, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the Security Service.

Mercieca further criticised the prosecution for failing to call potentially important witnesses, including former lawyer David Gatt and Mario Degiorgio.

Gatt allegedly contacted the hitmen and asked when the murder would take place. Mercieca also referred to allegations that Gatt undressed before meeting Schembri at Castille to prove he was not carrying a recording device.

Degiorgio, meanwhile, could have confirmed whether money Fenech gave Theuma was actually passed to the alleged killers, the defence argued.

Mercieca again attacked the credibility of pardoned middleman Melvin Theuma, accusing him of lying about meetings at Castille and Portomaso and selectively presenting recordings.

Theuma claimed to have recorded Schembri and others, but those recordings were never produced, Mercieca said. He had also initially claimed that recordings involving Cremona were discarded, before later saying they had been found.

The defence argued that Theuma received sweeping immunity covering his involvement in the murder, money laundering and other crimes. Judge Edwina Grima clarified that Theuma had been offered a pardon subject to conditions before Fenech’s arrest.

“All roads lead to Keith and all bridges leading to Keith were burnt,” Mercieca said, urging jurors to reject the prosecution’s case against Fenech.