The unexplained privileges of a chief of staff

It’s around 2:40pm of 26 November 2019 and a nine-seater vehicle pulls up outside a villa at the Santa Maria Estate in Mellieħa. The house belongs to Malta’s second most powerful man after the prime minister—his chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Three scene-of-the-crime police officers emerge from the unmarked police van, clueless as to what they had to do. They were told to expect orders when they arrive on site.

Instead of using their department vehicles, which have police markings, the officers had been told to travel to the villa using the unmarked nine-seater vehicle. Accompanying them are officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, suspect Keith Schembri and his two lawyers, Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo.

On arrival, one of the scene-of-crime officers asks her direct superior what was expected of them but neither he could provide an answer. The superior calls lead investigator Keith Arnaud for direction.

“He [Arnaud] told us to collect any devices indicated to us by Keith Schembri,” the superior tells his underlings, who look on in disbelief.

Inside the house are Schembri’s wife, his daughter, his elderly parents and Neville Gafa, a confidante and employee of the Office of the Prime Minister.

The scene-of-crime officers follow Keith Schembri around the house, taking photos and collecting the electronic devices he indicates. On Schembri’s instructions, officers collect a Dell laptop belonging to his wife, two MacBook laptops belonging to his daughters, a disused Asus tablet for which no power chord is available, and an iPad that sits on the bedside table in the master bedroom.

Two mobile phones are left untouched. Schembri does not point his finger to them and in line with the instructions they received earlier, the frustrated forensic officers do not collect them.

An unusual search

Roll forward to 27 July 2026 and Sergeant Michelle Camilleri is testifying in the trial by jury of Yorgen Fenech, who stands charged with masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Fenech is pleading not guilty to the charges.

In 2019, Camilleri was one of the scene-of-crime officers tasked to take photos of the electronic devices confiscated from Keith Schembri’s house in that afternoon search.

“We did not know what we were going for,” she tells jurors, while indicating that herself and two other forensic team members travelled to Mellieħa in a nine-seater van in which Keith Schembri and his two lawyers were also present.

Camilleri then explains that upon arrival in Mellieħa, she asked her superior, Alex Taliana—since deceased—what were they tasked to do. Taliana was also in the dark and called then Inspector Keith Arnaud, who was the lead investigator in the Caruana Galizia murder case from which several leaks had occurred.

Police outside Keith Schembri’s villa in Mellieha in 2019

“Taliana informed me that Arnaud told him to collect any devices indicated to us by Keith Schembri,” Camilleri testifies. “We were following Keith Schembri around, photographing the devices he indicated and collecting them.”

Jurors are then shown photos taken by Camilleri of the confiscated devices and where they were inside the house. In all, five devices were collected from the landing area, a study, two children’s bedrooms and the master bedroom.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Giannella de Marco, Camilleri admits it is not normal to have the suspect’s lawyers present during a search. She also admits that scene-of-crime officers are normally told beforehand why they are going to a property and what to search for.

Camilleri says it was Schembri, who indicated his children’s laptops, prompting De Marco to remark that “the suspect” was indicating devices of persons, who were not suspects, while claiming to have lost his own mobile phone.

De Marco then zooms in on one of the photos Camilleri had taken of a laptop. “There are two phones visible there but these were not confiscated,” the lawyer remarks.

Camilleri, visibly uncomfortable and in a tone that suggests frustration with the orders given to them at the time, replies: “They were not collected because Keith Schembri did not indicate them.”

Schembri’s privileges

Whether Camilleri’s testimony has any bearing on the Yorgen Fenech case remains to be seen but what it definitely shows is the reverential manner by which Keith Schembri was handled by investigators.

The former chief of staff, who had no qualms furthering his personal business interests, while occupying an important and influential role in government, was afforded privileges other suspects do not normally enjoy.

Schembri was allowed to have his lawyers present when forensic officers searched his house. But significantly, he was allowed to indicate which devices should be collected for examination—a privilege no other suspect is ever afforded because it defies logic and good practice.

Camilleri’s testimony simply strengthened the impression that Schembri’s influence across government was all-encompassing.

The lost mobile phone

The afternoon search at Keith Schembri’s house on 26 November 2019 was the second of the day. At around 6:30am, police officers had turned up at the Mellieħa villa to arrest Schembri and interrogate him over claims made by murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, who was in police custody.

Fenech had implicated Schembri in the plot to murder Caruana Galizia and in a subsequent attempt to pin the murder on then Economy Minister Chris Cardona. The police eventually proceeded to arrest Schembri on the morning of 26 November, the same day he resigned from chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The night before Schembri had a meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the latter’s house in Burmarrad. Muscat would later say the two discussed Schembri’s resignation.

Upon his arrest, Schembri was asked to hand over his mobile phone. However, he informed the officers that he had lost it. A cellular technology expert would later confirm that the last signal from Schembri’s device was emitted at around 5:04am on 26 November 2019 in Mellieħa—some 90 minutes before the arrest. It was never switched on again.

Meanwhile, the morning search of Schembri’s house was carried out by only two police officers with Arnaud testifying in court that investigators had been sent home to rest because they had had a long day.

Schembri was held in police custody for 48 hours during which he was interrogated about the murder. He denied Fenech’s claims and was released with no charge. In a rare statement about an individual suspect, the police had said Schembri was being released following “intensive investigations”.

“At this stage, the police do not feel the need to detain Mr Schembri under arrest for any longer,” the statement read.

Schembri was never charged with involvement in Caruana Galizia’s murder but in 2024, following the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry, he was charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act and perjury. Schembri was accused of leaking sensitive information from the Caruana Galizia murder investigation to Yorgen Fenech in the aftermath of the assassination.

Schembri is pleading not guilty and the case is ongoing.