Yorgen Fenech's case to remove lead investigator adjourned to May

The constitutional case that alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech filed against police inspector Keith Arnaud will continue in May after a brief sitting during which the State Attorney said she had no more proof at this stage. 

Fenech is alleging that his right to a fair trial is being breached. He claims that the chief investigator into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia had close links with former chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister, Keith Schembri. 

Fenech had described Arnaud’s investigation into Keith Schembri’s possible role in Caruana Galizia’s assassination as “careless, approximative, if not amateurish.”

Judge Lawrence Mintoff is presiding in the constitutional proceedings filed by the murder suspect.

Fenech had filed the proceedings in an attempt to remove Arnaud from the murder investigation.

Lawyers Marion Camilleri and Gianluca Caruana Curran are appearing for Fenech, while State Attorney Victoria Buttigieg, assisted by Maurizio Cordina, is opposing the request.

In the previous sitting, Peter Caruana Galizia testified and said that the person who told him about the death of his wife was police inspector Kurt Zahra, who works with chief investigator Arnaud.

“I had asked whether she had died and he had said yes. We always had a good relationship with Arnaud and Zahra. He’s been to my house and we had many long chats… like a two-hour chat,” he had told the court. 

Arnaud has admitted to regularly updating former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff Keith Schembri on the developments of the Caruana Galizia assassination.

Middleman Melvin Theuma and Yorgen Fenech have also testified that Arnaud’s predecessor, Silvio Valletta, was leaking sensitive information on the case.

Valletta was later revealed to have been a close friend of Fenech, with footage being discovered of the former deputy police commissioner amusing himself in the alleged mastermind’s Rolls Royce.

In the previous sitting, the constitutional court had also heard how a magisterial inquiry and a separate police investigation are underway into Melvin Theuma’s “ghost job” with the government but remains none the wiser as to its progress.