Schembri bid to keep chats on private life out of lawyers’ hands

Keith Schembri, the former right-hand man to prime minister Joseph Muscat, has asked a court not to reveal the contents of private conversations in from a device whose data has been extracted by the police, due to the sensitive nature of the chats. 

Schembri’s request comes over concerns that the highly sensitive content could include information about his private life as well as about his personal relations with political top brass. 

Schembri’s lawyers told the court of Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff that it would be “manifestly unjust if his personal data ended up being passed on to third parties, which would be a breach of his fundamental right to a fair hearing... and to his right to respect for his private amd family life, his home and his correspondence.” 

Schembri’s lawyers specifically referred to the leaks of the chats in Yorgen Fenech’s mobile phone which were broadcast across the media despite court orders for these not to be published. 

They requested that the data shown to Yorgen Fenech’s lawyers are only given access to the data that is relevant to their constitutional case. 

It is indeed the nature of the chats that could be the backdrop to an apparent breakdown in relations between the State Advocate and the Commissioner of Police, the latter opposing Chris Soler’s decision not to appeal a judge’s order to exhibit the data. 

Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff ordered that the data be exhibited in a constitutional court case filed by lawyers of Yorgen Fenech, alleged mastermind of the Caruana Galizia assassination. 

The surprise discovery of the data extraction from another of Keith Schembri’s devices was requested back in August 2021 in the course of the constitutional case, in which Fenech is attempting to get the lead police investigator, Keith Arnaud, taken off the murder investigation. 

Fenech’s lawyers claim the “newly discovered extractions” could help them prove Fenech’s allegations that implicate Keith Schembri – formerly right-hand man to prime minister Joseph Muscat – in the journalist’s assassination or corruption, and also allege that Arnaud himself had close ties to Schembri. 

But there may be more than meets the eye. Because while the judge said Fenech’s lawyers can be shown the data that could assist them in their constitutional case, Commissioner of Police Angelo Gafà has insisted on appealing the order: if the police has to present this evidence, it should be within the ongoing criminal inquiry against Fenech, not in the constitutional court.  

In fact Fenech’s lawyers will be entitled to select information from these chats related to their constitutional case, but they will also be able to glean through any other information they say was withheld from them by the police. 

But a disagreement is apparent between State Advocate and Gafà over Chris Soler’s apparent readiness to have the data exhibited in court, and to boot, renounce the option to appeal the judge’s order. 

Back in summer, Gafà told the court that Fenech’s lawyers were attempting a vexatious “fishing expedition” intended to drag out proceedings, and that the data did not have any relevance to the murder case. 

While Fenech’s lawyers think this data could help their bid to remove Arnaud from the case, the police are confident the data has nothing pertaining to the murder case.  

Fenech’s lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Marion Camilleri and Charles Mercieca insisted that such evidence could not be kept secret when it could pertain to high-ranking members of the government, given the history of Keith Schembri’s meddling in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation. 

The court  agreed, finding that Gafà’s testimony indicated there was more data to be analysed from the extraction. 

MaltaToday is informed that the State Advocate, comforted by police investigators that the data content was not advantageous to Fenech’s bid, had advised that the police comply with the jugde’s order. 

That advice – conferred  in court with Assistant Commissioner Alexandra Mamo present – included a commitment not to appeal the judge’s order. 

But it did not enjoy Gafà’s backing. A week later, the State Advocate’s underling was back in court, requesting an appeal on the order, much to the consternation of Judge Lawrence Mintoff. 

Whether Soler was motivated by the belief that the data would not help Fenech’s case, or whether he had been naive not to attempt the customary appeal to uphold the police force’s obdurate defence of their evidence, remains to be seen. 

But Soler refused to request the appeal, otherwise the Commissioner of Police would not have employed his underling Maurizio Cordina to appear in his stead earlier this week to request the appeal.  

Fenech’s lawyers protested, saying the State Advocate  had already declared in a long and detailed verbal note that the Court’s order would be followed.  

Mintoff agreed, accusing the Commissioner of Police of employing “nebulous” stratagems so that the Schembri mobile phone data remains protected “even at the cost of irreverence to the orders and decrees of Malta’s Courts of Constitutional jurisdiction.”  

Soler’s no-show did him no favours, with Mintoff ordering he be brought before his court for a dressing down in which the judge fined him for contempt of court.  

The judge then delivered a strongly-worded decree, pointing out to Soler that he had minuted, in the presence of AC Mamo, that the police would exibit the data and renounce their right to appeal.  

Soler argued  that his previous declaration had been dictated in good faith. But he was also bound by professional secrecy to represent his master’s wishes faithfully. The judge highlighted that even Mamo was physically present in court and had voiced no objection to the decree.