Silvio Valletta denies knowing arrest plans for assassination middleman Melvin Theuma

Former deputy comissioner says he was not in police force at the time of Melvin Theuma’s arrest

Deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta (right)
Deputy police commissioner Silvio Valletta (right)

Former Police Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta has denied claims in court by Caruana Galizia assassination middleman Melvin Theuma of having told the alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech about Theuma’s arrest.

Valletta said he could not have spoken to Yorgen Fenech about the police raid on Theuma because he was off the case and out of the police force at the time.

Valletta was reacting in a press statement to evidence in court by Theuma in the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech, the businessman accused of complicity in the 2017 murder.

Valletta said he was taken off the case on June 15, 2018 and left the police force in November 2018. The raid, during which Theuma was arrested on a money laundering charge, took place in 2019.

Valletta said that he could never have known this information and did not leak it. 

Last January, Times of Malta had revealed that Valletta travelled abroad with Fenech when the business magnate had already been identified as a person of interest in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.

On 29 September, 2018, Valletta, who had been part of the team of investigators working on the Caruana Galizia case, travelled to London with the business tycoon to watch a football match at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge stadium.