Yorgen Fenech’s family demands investigation into mobile phone contents leaks

The family of the man accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has called on the police commissioner to investigate leaks of the contents of Yorgen Fenech’s mobile phone.

On Sunday, newspaper Illum reported that over 2,000 messages were sent between Fenech and a member of Prime Minister Robert Abela’s cabinet. It is not yet clear who the Cabinet member is, and if the messages sent were for personal reasons.

And while it is not yet clear what the messages read, sources say there are more than 800 messages between Fenech and former Office of the Prime Minister Chief of Staff Keith Schembri. The former OPM chief of staff had spoken about his friendship with Fenech, saying he would go through fire for his friends. But Schembri insisted that Fenech never told him about the murder and never asked for information from him.

Illum reported that more than 700 messages between Fenech and former PN media head Pierre Portelli will be exhibited in court next October.

Portelli had forwarded Adrian Delia’s candidature for PN leader back in 2017. In his witness testimony, Keith Schembri had claimed Portelli would meet Fenech once a month to collect €20,000.

The claim came alongside Schembri’s allegation that PN Leader Adrian Delia took €50,000 from Yorgen Fenech to ensure that PN MEP David Casa was not re-elected during the 2019 elections.

And on Monday, news emerged that the 17 Black owner was also in constant communication with former tourism, now justice minister Edward Zammit Lewis in 2019.

The Fenech family said that in the past week, Yorgen’s mobile phone was used to make phone calls to other mobile numbers, while the phone is in the hands of the police and included in the Magisterial Inquiry currently underway.

“Without questioning the integrity of the mobile phone evidence, it is deplorable that the individuals charged with the administration of justice and the protection of fundamental human rights are being careless with the preservation of evidence in their possession and allowing such evidence to leak causing irreparable harm to fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals including Yorgen’s fair trial rights,” the family said.

“It cannot be overstated that Yorgen has and is denying the charges made by police about his role in the crime, and reserves his right to institute any legal redress to counter any assault on his fundamental human rights and the presumption of innocence.”

The Fenech family therefore called on Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa to criminally investigate these leaks including any public officials who communicated any document or fact, entrusted or known to them by reason of their office and which was to be kept secret.