Caruana Galizia lawyers cleared to ask Fenech about what he told police in 2019

Magistrate Rachel Montebello has upheld a request by the Caruana Galizia family’s lawyers in which they requested permission to ask questions about what Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech said when he had been arrested in December 2019.

The court said that the prosecuting police officers are to testify about the statement that Fenech made, including for the purpose of being given a Presidential Pardon, but only as far as this concerned his involvement in the homicide of Daphne Caruana Galizia and not other crimes with which he is not accused.

This is because that information could prejudice the integrity of police investigations into those other crimes.

The court said that once the AG had declared that he was also going to request the testimony of Superintendent Keith Arnaud, Inspector Kurt Zahra and ex-Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar with regards to the statement about the pardon, this testimony must be given when asked for by the AG and not through questions by the parte civile, at least at this stage.

The request made in the application filed by the parte civile – to “ask questions to the prosecuting officials about all of, and not just a selection of, what Fenech had said during his arrest” – was therefore upheld.

Fenech had unsuccessfully opposed the request, stating that it had already been made and had already been denied. The court did not agree with those submissions.