Raymond Caruana 'bluff' - Minister sits in on interrogation with murder suspect

MaltaToday is informed that inmate Kenneth Gafa’ – currently held at Corradino Prisons under preventative custody as he awaits trial for the murder of his former girlfriend Christina Sammut in Mgarr last December – was interrogated for more than five hours by a team of investigators led by Commissioner John Rizzo, and later also in the presence of home affairs and justice minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

“The interrogation proved that despite Gafà saying he knew who killed Raymond Caruana, he likely knew nothing and was likely just trying to waste time,” a senior police source told MaltaToday.

Gafà had originally made a request to speak to home affairs and justice minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici via an interview in l-orizzont, although his identity was not revealed. But this request was turned down when Mifsud Bonnici said he would not meet an inmate and that such investigations were up to the police.

A statement issued by the ministry yesterday evening, explained that the minister was advised by an investigating officer to be present for the interrogation. Yet again, Gafa' had nothing new to report.

The interrogation however led to the police establishing that the declaration made by Gafà was likely a bluff intended to gain prison priviledges.

Gafà is 36 years old and at the time of Raymond Caruana’s killing in 1986, he was aged 11. This does not exclude the possibility that he might have learnt some information through criminal sources from inside Corradino or outside.

A police source told MaltaToday that “while it would be highly unlikely that Gafà would have been on the crime scene in 1986, the information he may have had, would potentially be dismissed as hearsay, but he didn’t even have any information to tell us.”

Caruana, a PN activist, was murdered at the Gudja PN club on 5 December 1986, at the age of 26. While at the PN club, a car drove past the club, firing several shots. One bullet fatally hit Caruana in the throat, killing him.

A trumped-up charge was later pressed against PN activist (today Safi mayor) Peter Paul Busuttil, where police found the murder weapon inside his farmhouse. The evidence was found to have been planted there in a police frame-up.

A number of people have been investigated over the years in connection to the murder, and they  have either all died or never been charged with the murder.

Another man, Nicholas Ellul, was also charged with the murder but he died of a drug overdose before his trial began.

According to l-orizzont, Gafà said that he was ready to reveal everything he knows only Carm Mifsud Bonnici, and that that he already met Commissioner of Police John Rizzo to tell him he knew the identity of the alleged murderer, but will only speak in the presence of Mifsud Bonnici.

“All I want is protection for my family. I’m not going to benefit anything from my case and I’m not asking for anything,” the prisoner told l-orizzont. “I have suffered several injustices since I have been imprisoned. All I want is to see justice being served and I’m going to help them solve the case.”