Schembri's phone still missing; Castille office not sealed by police between arrest, search

● No bail for Yorgen Fenech

A court heard yesterday how Keith Schembri’s mobile phone is still missing and how his Castille office was not sealed and guarded by police between his arrest and the search carried out inside.

New details emerged as the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech resumed yesterday.

Fenech is charged with promoting, organising or financing a criminal association with the intention of committing criminal offences; with actively participating in criminal association; with being complicit in the voluntary murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia; and with associating with persons in Malta or abroad with the intention of committing a crime. He is pleading not guilty.

Inspector Kurt Zahra told the court yesterday that, on 19 November at around 6.15am, he had been informed by Inspector Keith Arnaud that Yorgen Fenech had been seen aboard his yacht, the Gio.

At around 6.30am, the police inspectors boarded the yacht and arrested Fenech. He was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Caruana Galizia.

After a preliminary search aboard the yacht, police inspectors asked Fenech whether there were any dangerous instruments on the vessel. Police found around €7,000 aboard the vessel.

Photographs taken aboard the yacht and all articles of interest were handed over to members of Europol.

The investigation then moved to Fenech’s Portomoso penthouse. The captain of the yacht, Logan Wood, was told not to leave the vessel.

Wood was then told to join the officers at the police headquarters and was asked to make a statement. The captain requested legal representation and submitted a six-page statement. In it, he claimed that he was employed by the Tumas Group as the captain of Fenech’s vessels. “It’s normal for me to take the vessel to Sicily for maintenance before it’s ready to sail,” Wood said in his statement.

Wood explained that his plan was to go to Pozzallo and then come back to Malta via catamaran. Zahra asked Wood about Fenech’s plan, and Wood replied that Fenech had planned to go up to Pozzallo but was not going to return to Malta.

He also told police that he was unaware of Fenech’s possible plan to escape the island, Zahra told the court.

Police were then told that Fenech was experiencing some form of anxiety during police searches. His doctor, Adrian Vella, was called and spent two hours with Fenech while the searches took place.

After the search on the boat was concluded on the day of his arrest, Fenech was escorted to police headquarters so the interrogation and investigations could continue.

A Europol investigator asked the police to thoroughly search the vessel once again in Fenech’s presence for fear that there could be explosives on the Gio. No explosives were found, Zahra said.

On 22 November, the antimoney laundering unit carried out searches of its own at the Portomaso and confiscated a number of documents. Zahra said that the main concern at the time was electronic equipment.

On 26 November, the inspector was informed by Keith Arnaud that Adrian Vella was to be questioned as well. He said that though Vella’s car was parked in Buġibba outside his residence, Vella was not opening the front door of his residence and could not be reached. Keith Arnaud insisted that it was important that Adrian Vella be questioned.

Police then went to Vella’s Qawra clinic but the doctor was not there. It is through the daughter that the police eventually made contact with Vella. He was told to come to police headquarters for questioning.

The inspector presented photographs to the court, together with a number of receipts signed by Europol experts referring to items that were confiscated by Maltese police and handed to them, and other important articles.

These included an invoice of €1 million found at Fenech’s Portomaso offices issued by New Energy Supply Ltd to Gem Holdings Ltd, a group of Maltese interests, including the Apap Bologna Family, Gasan Enterprises and Fenech himself, in the LNG Delimara power station.

Inspector Kevin Pulis was next on the witness stand. He presented documents of Wings Development Ltd and Wings Investments Ltd found in Fenech’s Portomaso offices. It was previously reported that in March 2017, Fenech’s 17 Black had changed its name to Wings Development.

Pulis submitted a lengthy Nexia BT report, dated 2015. This was found in Fenech’s office. The contents of the report were not mentioned.

Pulis claims that 24 November was the last time that Vella had met Fenech and during his arrest they were allowed to speak in confidence.

Cross-examined by the defence, Pulis confirmed that the €7,000 were found on Fenech’s yacht, and mobile phones that were found on the yacht, including Fenech’s personal phone, were handed to members of Europol for examination.

Another police officer from the drugs squad took the stand and he identified Yorgen Fenech in the courtroom as the man he saw on the Gio when the yacht was searched.

The police officer said four searches took place after Fenech’s arrest: on the yacht, Fenech’s Portomaso

residence, an office at the Tumas Group’s corporate offices on Level 3 of the Portomaso business tower, and an office on Level 21 of the same building.

The officer described how many items were confiscated from these locations and placed in evidence bags: sim cards, BOV cards, an American Express card, a Revolut card, a laptop, phones, and a passport were handed to Inspector Pulis.

The officer identified six letters found in Fenech’s possession that are addressed to middleman Melvin Theuma.

The police officer said he was also the one to escort Keith Schembri at some point to the police headquarters. He was accompanied by Inspectors Kurt Zahra and Keith Arnaud.

He told the court that searches were carried out at Keith Schembri’s house in Mellieħa.

Defence lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran asked the officer how Fenech’s behaviour was during his arrest. “We never had problems. He was cooperative. There were certain occasions when he was on police bail, and we were assigned as security with him. Whatever we told him, he was very amenable and collaborative,” the officer said.

Another officer spoke about Fenech’s visit to hospital. There were no individuals who had been with him apart from emergency doctors, he said.

Inspector Nicholas Vella from the money-laundering unit was next to testify. “On 9 September, I received a confidential report with regard to Melvin Theuma. After receiving this report, I started a financial investigation into him,” he told the court.

Melvin Theuma is the middleman in the Caruana Galizia murder. He was granted a presidential pardon to reveal any information he may have. Theuma was arrested last month in a moneylaundering operation and told the police of his involvement in the murder.

“A number of misdemeanours regarding money laundering, tax evasion and illegal gambling were clear from the investigation,” Inspector Vella said.

When Theuma was arrested, he was holding a box which he refused to hand over “at all costs.”

“I told him that wherever that box goes, I would go. And that has been the case up until the box was opened,” Vella said. The box contained numerous recordings, evi

dence, a photo of Theuma and Keith Schembri at Castille. Vella says that Theuma refused to let the box go, insisting he would only speak to the police commissioner.

The defence asked the witness whether Keith Schembri was mentioned on this occasion. Vella said that Schembri’s name had been mentioned. Inspector Arnaud interjected: “How was he mentioned, though?” Vella said that Schembri was mentioned after the box was opened and Schembri was recognised in one of the photos found in the box.

Arnaud was then asked by the defence if Schembri is still being investigated.

“An investigation into Keith Schembri is still taking place. His mobile phone is yet to be found. The reason he hasn’t been asked again to reproduce his phone is that there are other more pertinent things. We have also asked for data to see where this phone was used last,” Arnaud said.

“What did you do as a police inspector to find this mobile phone?” Caruana Curran asked. “The investigation is still going on,” Arnaud continued, “so I need to be careful what to say. Like in the case of another phone we tried to trace, it depends on various factors whether we will be able to find it, such as whether it’s on or off, for example.” Arnaud added that he is not sure whether Schembri told him where and when the mobile phone was lost.

Arnaud said that when Schembri was under arrest (26 November), no one was guarding his office at Castille to make sure that evidence wasn’t being tampered with. No police were sent to make sure that the office of the former OPM chief of staff was sealed, Arnaud said.

He claimed that he talked to the new chief of staff, Mark Farrugia, and that he had locked up the office when Schembri was arrested. Arnaud said Farrugia had told him that he (Farrugia) was the only one in charge of that office and nobody had entered it. A proper search of Keith Schembri's

Castille office took place on 5 December, Arnaud confirmed.

Arnaud confirmed that ‘Kenneth of Castille’ was mentioned in the tapes but never by surname. It was Theuma, who later who confirmed the surname. Kenneth Camilleri was part of the security detail of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Arnaud said the tapes make reference to “ix-xiħ”. These tapes are recordings of Melvin Theuma’s conversation with Yorgen Fenech. Arnaud confirms that Fenech mentions “ix-xiħ”, not Theuma, and he did this to refer to a Castille meeting.

Parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi cross-examining Arnaud. He asked whether Adrian Vella, Yorgen Fenech and Keith Schembri’s personal doctor, had a mobile phone when he was arrested. “Yes, he did, between 25 and 26 November. But he told us that he had cleaned all the contents of his phone,” Arnaud said, adding that the doctor had told police that he was scared.

Arnaud confirmed that Vella had said that he had called Keith Schembri during this time. Schembri had told the doctor: “Keep calm, and open the door to the police.” Arnaud told the court that there were many “loose ends” in the investigation and that there were many ends that slipped from their grasp. He confirmed that an investigation into Adrian Vella’s calls to Keith Schembri was taking place.

Asked about Keith Schembri’s phone, Arnaud said: “We asked him about his phone and he said he lost it. Then we asked him for passwords for the cloud and his email but to this day he has not provided any passwords because of sensitive work emails.”

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Rachel Montebello, presiding, denied a request for bail, saying she was not satisfied that justice would be carried out if bail were to be granted, especially because so many investigations were still ongoing.