Police had to change Melvin Theuma arrest plans after Koħħu's pardon was denied

The plan for Melvin Theuma’s arrest had to be changed after hitman Vince Muscat, il-Koħħu, was denied a presidential pardon in 2019, a judge has heard today.

The Chief investigator into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Superintendent Keith Arnaud was cross-examined before Mr. Justice Lawrence Mintoff by lawyer Charles Mercieca, who is representing Yorgen Fenech in a constitutional bid to have Arnaud removed from the investigation.

In an, at times meandering, cross-examination lasting over two hours, Arnaud was grilled on several topics. One of them was his handwritten notes which he had exhibited in previous sittings. The notes relate to informal meetings held with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech when he was giving information related to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in a bid to obtain a presidential pardon.

Arnaud was also asked about the briefings held at OPM in which former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, then Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, then OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri were present. These were held in 2018.

Other attendees included former AG Peter Grech, Louis Grech, Kurt Farrugia and Owen Bonnici, Arnaud told the court when pressed for more names by Mercieca. He later added that in 2017, former deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta attended the briefings.

Arnaud said he took no minutes of the briefings, but recalled that they were limited to the progress of the investigation without going into the specifics.

“We were hoping that Vince Muscat would have been granted a presidential pardon in order to go ahead with the arrests,” Arnaud told the court.

At the time of one of the briefings, Vince Muscat had already provided information to the police including all the information he had on Melvin Theuma. Arnaud explained that Muscat’s version of events corroborated the facts they already had.

The court also heard how the Caruana Galizia family had given a document to Arnaud during a meeting in June 2018, listing stories which she had published that might shed light on her murder. Mercieca asked Arnaud how the police went about investigating this since the victim’s laptop was not seized.

Mercieca explained that the plaintiffs had recently received a copy of the document and that this had been presented to the inquiring magistrate in 2018. The lawyer asked Arnaud about the “principal subjects” indicated by the family in the document, to which the investigator replied that the document consisted of journalistic investigations which were ongoing at the time of Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Arnaud confirmed that he had received a document identifying principal subjects of Caruana Galizia’s investigations. Keith Schembri is identified as one in “at least eight or nine” of these, he said, adding that Chris Cardona featured in five and Owen Bonnici in one.

The plaintiff’s lawyer asked why he continued to hold briefings with Owen Bonnici present despite him being mentioned in the document. Arnaud pointed out that these were not police investigations but investigations undertaken by Caruana Galizia, some of which were already in the public domain.

Queried as to why the police did not send for Keith Schembri, Chris Cardona and Owen Bonnici when he received the document, Arnaud said the police would perform initial investigations before arresting anyone.

He explained that there were various leads from Caruana Galizia’s investigative work, and that some of these leads were being investigated by his colleagues.

Arnaud remarked how that at the time the police had only arrested the three suspected triggermen and they were going after Theuma on account of information provided by Vince Muscat. He submitted that the police could not arrest people on the basis of a journalistic investigation, pointing out that in order to have an arrest warrant issued there were strict criteria that have to be satisfied.

During the sitting, state advocate Chris Soler remarked that Dr Mercieca was carrying out a cross-examination of a cross-examination of separate proceedings happening before the Court of Magistrates in its criminal judicature. This was procedurally incorrect, he said.

Schembri’s arrest

On Keith Schembri’s arrest, Arnaud explained that Theuma had implicated Keith Schembri however the state witness had told the police that he could not confirm Schembri’s involvement on oath.

Confronted with this information, Fenech told the police that Theuma had implicated Schembri because the latter was a friend of his. “In his mind, Theuma thought Fenech could pressure Schembri and Schembri being in government could protect him,” Arnaud recalled Fenech telling him in an informal questioning session.

Arnaud explained that Fenech then changed his account once his presidential pardon was rejected.

Arnaud added that Fenech had also refused to give audio-visual statements when giving information to the police, but Theuma had accepted to.

Mercieca asked the Police whether Fenech was tested for drugs before giving his statements to the police, with Arnaud replying in the negative saying that no one flagged such an issue.

“Nobody drew our attention to this and it was not necessary,” Arnaud said. “He was answering normally and his lawyers never mentioned anything [at the time].”

During the examination of Arnaud, it emerged that Fenech had told the police several times that he trusted them, but had felt betrayed after Theuma was granted presidential pardon in his stead.

Mercieca then read from Arnaud’s notes, with the Superintendent confirming that Fenech had said he should have never got involved and that he had never ordered Theuma to commission the murder.

However, Arnaud pointed out, Fenech had confirmed paying for the murder had also confirmed the total amount of money he had given Theuma for the job: around €500,000.

The court put off the case for judgment on 19 November at 8.45am.

Lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianluca Caruana Curran and Marion Camilleri appeared for Yorgen Fenech.