Middleman recordings: former police chief could have passed tip-off on his arrest

The former Maltese police commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, has been alleged to have tipped off Melvin Theuma - the middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination - of his impending arrest.

The allegation is contained in one of the secret recordings made by Theuma in the months following the arrest of the assassins in December 2017.

A Times report said Theuma can be heard saying in the audio recording that Cutajar met his good friend Edwin Brincat ‘il-Ġojja’, and that two dates are mentioned: the 16th and 26th. It is possible these are the days when Theuma’s arrest was planned.

The previously unheard recordings were discovered by Europol experts on Theuma’s computer hard drive in recent weeks.

According to the report, which quotes sources who head the recording, Theuma is heard telling a third party how he had just received word that the then-police chief Cutajar had met with a close associate of his.

Cutajar told The  Times he had no knowledge of the recordings, and added that he had not been approached about the matter by any of the authorities. Cutajar said he had given his version of events over the meetings with Brincat and denied any wrongdoing.

Cutajar is expected to be called in to police headquarters in Floriana.

Il-Ġojja, a close friend of Theuma, is believed to have first convinced the murder middleman to begin recording his conversations with Fenech and other associates linked to the murder.

Cutajar said he had no knowledge of the recordings, and that he had not been approached about the matter by any of the authorities.

Cutajar had held two secret meetings with Il-Ġojja during the course of the murder investigation, apparently without the knowledge of the investigative team.

Sources said that when the meeting was first uncovered, Cutajar had been approached by investigative partners and told not to do so again.