Ex-deputy police chief who investigated Caruana Galizia murder holidayed with Yorgen Fenech

Silvio Valletta, the former deputy police chief who was removed from the investigation into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder following a court ruling, had travelled with Yorgen Fenech to the UK to watch a football match, a report has said.

Valletta went to London with Fenech on 29 September 2018, when the Electrogas power station owner and former Tumas Group director suspected of masterminding Caruana Galizia’s assassination had already been identified as a person of interest in the case, The Sunday Times of Malta reported today.

It said that Valletta and Fenech had travelled together on an early morning Air Malta flight to Heathrow airport to watch a football match between Liverpool and Chelsea at the latter club’s Stamford Bridge stadium in Fulham.

Valletta confirmed with the newspaper that he had indeed travelled with Fenech, but insisted that he had paid for his flights himself and that he had not been part of the Caruana Galizia murder investigation since June 2018.

In June 2018, Valletta suspended himself from the investigation into the journalist’s assassination after a court ruled that he desist in taking part in the case as a result of a potential conflict of interest due to his marriage to Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana.

The Caruana Galizia family had contested Valletta’s participation in the investigation, insisting he had a conflict of interest as a result of his marriage to Caruana and his role as a board member of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU).

The family said Valletta's link to a cabinet minister was problematic since the slain journalist had written numerous times about alleged wrongdoing of members of the executive.

The court’s decision was appealed by the Attorney General, but was in October 2018 confirmed by the Constitutional Court, which upheld the order for Valletta's involvement in the investigation to stop.

According to The Times, around the time that the trip to the UK took place, the FIAU had just transmitted to the police an intelligence report saying that Fenech was the owner of the secret Dubai company 17 Black.

In August last year it was announced in the Government Gazette that Valletta had retired from the police corps and as a result no longer sits on the FIAU board.