Yorgen Fenech lawyers to be arraigned over attempted bribery of journalist

Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca will be arraigned over the attempt to bribe Times of Malta journalist Ivan Martin.

Martin rejected between two and four €500 notes when they were physically handed to him by Caruana Curran towards the end of a meeting.

The lawyer is one of the team defending the businessman charged with complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Charges were issued and the case is expected to be heard on Monday. The lawyers had admitted offering the journalist cash but claimed they were only compensating the journalist for his services.

READ ALSO: Former chief justice to head probe into lawyer's offer of cash to Times journalist

Martin has been summoned as a court witness for a hearing next Monday, together with Times of Malta editor-in-chief Herman Grech and news editor Diana Cacciottolo.

Caruana Curran had initially claimed he was not aware Ivan Martin was a full-time journalist and wanted to offer him payment in exchange for “neutralising the bias” in local news reporting.

After details of the incident were revealed by the newspaper, the legal team claimed the journalist had posed as "an investigator".

They had claimed he was interested in helping their client Yorgen Fenech with investigation services through his sources and information.

The lawyers' claim was rejected by the newspaper, which said the line of argument put forward by the lawyers was "baffling".

“At no point in his conversation did Ivan Martin indicate he was an investigator, a claim which came a day after the story was published,” TOM editor-in-chief Herman Grech had said.

The bribery attempt was condemned by European press freedom organisation and urged that it be investigated.