Police investigating Silvio Valletta, Yorgen Fenech link
The police are investigating links between former Deputy Commissioner Silvio Valletta and Yorgen Fenech, who has been accused of complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
It was yesterday revealed that it was not only in London where Silvio Valletta and Yorgen Fenech watched a football game together. After it was revealed on Sunday that the two had been together at Stamford Bridge to watch a Chelsea game, it is now also confirmed that Valletta and Fenech were together for the 2018 Champions League final in Kiev, Ukraine.
Valletta confirmed that he had travelled twice to watch football games with Fenech, denying however that he knew, at the time, that Fenech was a person of interest in the murder. Valletta was for a time investigating the Caruana Galizia murder until a court ruled against his involvement as he was married to then-Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana, who resigned following the media reports.
In a statement, the police said that an investigation had been launched as soon as the media reports were published. Valletta was questioned at the police headquarters as part of the investigation, the police said. The investigations are ongoing.
Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who is also representing the Caruana Galizia, yesterday asked on Facebook whether Valletta had travelled with Fenech in May 2018 to watch the Champions League final.
“I ask: how did he travel to Kiev? Did he make use of any private jet courtesy of Yorgen Fenech? What communication was there between him and Fenech prior to that day? Who else travelled with him for this game?” he wrote.
Azzopardi said that by that date, it was well known to the police CID, headed by Valletta, that Fenech was a person of interest in a murder investigation.
Valletta denied that he had ever used a private jet.
The flight to Kiev took place four months before Fenech and Valletta travelled together to London. Valletta retired from the police force in last August.
In June 2018, Valletta suspended himself from the murder investigation after the Constitutional Court ordered his removal from the case. The Court of Appeal upheld the original judgment in October that year.
The Malta Independent had previously contacted former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to ask him a number of questions relating to this issue; however, he had refused to give his take on the situation. Mark Farrugia, who was Muscat’s Chief of Staff after Keith Schembri resigned, responded on behalf of Muscat: “Dr Muscat is not giving statements to the media. One has to make it absolutely clear that as Prime Minister, Dr Muscat never intruded on any investigations.”