Kohhu: Pardon delayed to protect prominent individuals in Caruana Galizia murder

“Prominent individuals” yet to be publicly named are involved in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder and other crimes, assassination suspect Vincent Muscat ‘il-Kohhu’ has declared.

Muscat’s lawyer Marc Sant on Monday filed a court application accusing the police of unnecessarily delaying a report on his request – pending since April 2018 – for a presidential pardon to walk free, in exchange for information about the journalist’s murder and other crimes he says he has inside knowledge about.

Muscat accused lead inspector Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra of playing for time in the interests of “prominent third parties”, some of whom are politicians involved in the crimes, and said the only reason for this “exaggerated delay” hidden interests to protect “prominent individuals” yet to be mentioned in connection with Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Muscat wants the entire cabinet from 2017 to date, including former prime minister Joseph Muscat and former chief of staff Keith Schembri, to testify about his presidential pardon request.

Muscat declared that it was him who pointed the finger at middleman Melvin Theuma back in April 2018.

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Then a formal request for a pardon was made again when Theuma and Fenech were arrested by the police in connecti­on with the murder in November 2019. Theuma was first arrested on a money laundering charge that he was aware of, because of a pending FIAU investigation that could have been prompted by Muscat’s statement in 2018.

Muscat held five sessions with the police between January and February, detailing his knowledge of various crimes.

Muscat wants pending trial over his alleged involvement in the 2010 failed HSBC heist should be postponed until a decision is taken on his pardon.

Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the attorney general’s office, the police and the lawyers for Caruana Galizia’s family were also mentioned as witnesses in the court application.