Pull the pardon

Melvin Theuma received a presidential pardon on the recommendation of one man: Joseph Muscat.  The conditions of that pardon were never published.

The Office of the President turned down attempts to obtain a copy. Nobody knows what Theuma was pardoned for, or whether his partner and her daughter were also pardoned – except Yorgen Fenech.  Police found a copy of Theuma’s pardon on Fenech’s phone, evidence in court revealed.

Police have known about the leak since 2021, yet they still claim they don’t know who was responsible. Fenech knows that too. He told the police it was Keith Schembri who sent it to him.

The real winner in this long, sordid saga is Theuma.  All his crimes have been magically erased.

Theuma admitted to large-scale illegal gambling, running an illegal lottery and taking illegal bets on horse racing. He was arrested over money laundering. Theuma claimed he earned €250,000 between 2006 and 2018, yet financial investigators identified at least €2.23 million in transactions.

Theuma was also accused of loan sharking and usury.

Theuma was also involved in the aftermath of the November 2007 HSBC Balzan robbery, the February 2010 Casino di Venezia robbery and the June 2010 HSBC Qormi headquarters robbery.

Theuma claimed he only earned around €22,000 annually but amassed a massive property empire – 11 properties by the time he was arrested.  Documentation referred to 19 different properties or property transactions.  His properties were valued at €1.25 million. Over €790,000 euro in cash,  as well as gold and jewellery, were discovered at Theuma’s properties.

He also owned numerous vehicles, including a Mercedes, a Jaguar and his taxis. The defence in the Yorgen Fenech trial put Theuma’s wealth at €4 million.

That bulk of that massive wealth wasn’t earned honestly.  Theuma cheated and robbed the country through his illegal operations, tax evasion, undeclared earnings and loan sharking. He’s been breaking the law for years.  He’s a self-confessed criminal.

But his biggest crime is his role in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The self-confessed middleman didn’t just cheat the nation financially; he robbed the Caruana Galizia family of a loved one. He robbed the nation of the most effective investigative journalist who uncovered a whole catalogue of Labour’s rampant corruption. And Theuma robbed Daphne of her life.

Yet Theuma was granted a pardon.  That pardon was conditional on him testifying truthfully. But Theuma didn’t.

He refused to testify in the fake job case against Keith Schembri and Sandro Craus, at least twice – on 7 October 2022 and 25 May 2023 – ensuring their acquittal. Magistrate Monica Vella ruled that Theuma had a duty to testify. He had immunity from prosecution and didn’t risk self-incrimination.  He still refused to testify, breaching his pardon conditions.

Since then, Theuma has lied repeatedly.  He sometimes called it “bluff”, sometimes “the madness of my mind”.  He initially indicated to police that Schembri was directly involved in the journalist’s murder but then changed his version.

Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud testified that Theuma asked for the police commissioner, but Theuma denied it under oath.

Theuma testified he was only bluffing when he mentioned Schembri in conversations with Johann Cremona. He claimed he was bluffing when he mentioned €15,000 in payment to former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar in his recordings.

He insisted he only went to Castille once when he met Schembri and got his phantom job. But Fenech’s defence team produced a visitor slip recording Theuma on a “personal visit to Craus” on 2 March 2017, which lasted between 12.51pm and 3.30pm.

John Abela, OPM Director General for Support Services, confirmed the authenticity of that visitor slip. In messages to his partner’s daughter on 1 March 2017, Theuma also referred to a further appointment at Castille.

Theuma clearly breached the conditions of his pardon.  He refused to testify when requested and wasn’t truthful when he did, contradicting himself repeatedly and becoming hysterical when confronted with that visitor slip of his lengthy Castille visit.

The nation got nothing out of Theuma’s pardon.  The police had possession of his recordings when they arrested him.  They had plenty of evidence to indict Fenech with or without Theuma’s testimony. There was no need for Muscat’s pardon. Besides, Theuma’s testimony was not considered credible by the jury, and it didn’t lead to a conviction.

Meanwhile, Theuma won the biggest lottery of his life.  His multiple crimes were pardoned.  His role in the execution of Caruana Galizia’s murder is forgiven.  Theuma cheated the country for decades. His inconsistencies and contradictions, his unreliability and instability, have now cheated the country of the justice it deserved.

Theuma failed to keep his part of the deal. It’s time to revoke his pardon.  It’s time for Theuma to be prosecuted for his many crimes and to pay the penalty for all the misery he has inflicted on so many. It’s time the country got some justice.

The President may not have the constitutional power to revoke Theuma’s “presidential” pardon, but she certainly has the moral duty to demand a review of whether the pardon’s conditions were breached and, if so, request revocation. Anything less leaves the Presidency bearing the blame for another grave injustice heaped on a wronged nation by a conflicted political leader.