The system works

The court proceedings against Yorgen Fenech in the summer of 2026 will be remembered by every Maltese journalist for many years to come. 

To me it is more than an intriguing experience. I happen to know and knew all the people involved in the court proceedings in some way or another. I interacted with most of them, as teacher, acquaintance, friend, foe and colleague.

What is more ominous to me is that Yorgen Fenech’s involvement in the crime was known to the prime minister’s right hand man, Keith Schembri, long before the former’s arrest in November 2019. The police and secret service had informed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat that Yorgen Fenech was a person of interest more than 17 months before his arrest. Keith Schembri also knew and according to court filings communicated and passed on vital confidential information about the investigation to Yorgen Fenech. These are facts.

The question is why did Joseph Muscat not act, as early as May 2018, when he knew of Fenech’s business dealings with Keith Schembri through 17 Black and the former’s possible involvement in the murder, and do away with Schembri?

And why did he continue to meet Yorgen Fenech when he knew that he was considered to be a prime suspect in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder?

Muscat has argued that he was advised by the secret service not to change his rapport with Fenech and act as if he did not suspect anything. Muscat did just that.

But the question remains: Why did Muscat not act against Schembri? Politically, Schembri was a liability.

Somehow, Muscat appears to have resigned himself to the fact that he would only act when the police would swoop in and arrest Fenech.

The decision to arrest Fenech was taken when it was clear that the businessman was going to leave the island on his yacht, after he was tipped off by a former Times of Malta journalist, who now works for The Shift News. Fenech’s arrest led to the subsequent resignation of Muscat and Schembri in 2019 and a change in Labour’s leadership.

The people who planted and detonated the bomb, the gangsters who supplied it, the middleman, who facilitated the crime, and the mastermind are either behind bars or undergoing proceedings. All this took place under a Labour administration with a prime minister who at the time enjoyed a remarkable following and parliamentary majority.  A prime minister who was considered invincible and who could influence decisions at every level. And yet the system did not appear to bend over and change course.

If the system was flawed and completely controlled these criminals or alleged criminals would not have faced justice. The system functioned, the police acted and so did the courts.

The international press and civil rights groups are correct in questioning the time taken to see these proceedings through. But this is the Maltese legal system and it happens in all cases irrespective of the individual. Is it right? No.

But to change the criminal legal procedures in the middle of such a case would be a grave mistake. And unlike other criminal systems we pride ourselves in the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty and that every person must have the right to defend him or herself.

The truth is that Yorgen Fenech used his financial wealth to influence people, including politicians, police officers, journalists and public officials. There were some who knew what the name of the game was and others who did not. The absolute majority did not know that Yorgen Fenech could have been the mastermind behind this monstrous plot. They thought he was another businessman, who was serious and decent and someone you could do business with. And so they engaged with Fenech, accepted his generous gifts and freebies. They included trips abroad, expensive gifts and even payments for cancer treatment.

But even as I retrace the events linked to Daphne’s murder, what I cannot understand is why Muscat chose not to take action against Keith Schembri.

I strongly believe he had nothing to do with the murder. Neither did he ever encourage it or engage in a discussion about it. But if he had nipped Fenech-Schembri camaraderie in the bud, the situation could have been very different for him and everyone else today.

It seems that his biggest mistake was trusting his head of secretariat and treating him like a brother and allowing him to act with impunity.

When the proverbial shit did hit the fan, nothing blocked or halted the judicial process or police investigation. Not the Muscat administration and neither the Abela one.

Something does work after all.

Fenech’s trial by jury may be interesting but it is also very sad. The evidence shows the extent to which criminal intent has led people to do what no one ever expected them to do. In the midst of all this, justice appears to prevail and that is more than a ray of hope.