‘Keith told me this,’ middleman heard saying in recordings
The middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case was heard saying, “Keith told me this,” in a recording played in court on Wednesday morning.
The case against the alleged mastermind, Yorgen Fenech continued yesterday, with recordings taken by middleman, Melvin Theuma, being heard in court. The recordings had been found with Theuma when he was arrested, which he had taken after becoming suspicious of Fenech.
During the sitting, snippets of the recording were played and Theuma was heard saying that “Keith told him this,” referring to a fact that was revealed in a previous sitting, that Theuma was informed the Degiorgio brothers and Vincent Muscat, the three accused of the journalists murder, would get bail and one million euro each.
Theuma had previously said that a “Kenneth from Castille” had given him this information. The man was later identified as Kenneth Camilleri who had worked as part of then Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat’s security detail, and as a Transport Malta official. He was later suspended by Transport Malta.
Having heard in the recordings that Theuma said that he got this information from Schembri, Inspector Keith Arnaud, prosecuting, asked Theuma, who was testifying during the recordings, to explain.
Theuma testified that it was not true that Schembri had told him that bail would be granted.
“Kenneth told me this, not Keith,” Theuma insisted, adding that “I just associated Kenneth with Keith.” At this point, defence lawyer Gianluca Caruana Curran interrupted and noted that Theuma was contradicting himself.
‘Keith Schembri does not have the power’
Theuma also said that Mario Degiorgio, one of the Degiorgio’s brothers, used to contact him all the time, asking him about bail for his brothers. When Theuma used to ask Fenech about it, Fenech said he would try.
Theuma would tell him to ask Schembri, but Fenech always insisted that Schembri did not have “power in these things” and, in fact, he did not even have the power to do anything about “his own things.”
The Court then asked Theuma to clarify what he had meant by “his own things”, to which Theuma replied that he believed
Fenech was referring to some court cases Schembri must have had.
The recordings that were heard took place in the car, “the Jaguar”, Theuma explained. Children could also be heard in the background, which Theuma confirmed were Fenech’s.
Theuma could not recall if the recording being heard took place in 2018 or 2019, but noted that it definitely was not 2017. He went on to explain that he started recording conversations between Fenech and himself when he found out that Muscat (one of the three men accused with the murder) started giving information to the police. Arnaud also noted that no dates were found on the recordings when they were found in Theuma’s possession.
Theuma explained that he used to keep two mobile phones on him, one which he used to place where Fenech could see it, and the other one in the driver’s side door. The one kept in the door was the one he used to record the conversations.
He also confirmed that Fenech did not know he was recording him, and it was only on 14 October 2019 that Theuma told Fenech that he had been recording him. On that day, Theuma had presented Fenech with the recordings and the now infamous letter he had written, mentioning Schembri’s name.
He had also passed on the message that he was recording Fenech, through Johan Cremona. Cremona is heavily into the gaming scene with links to the Fenech casino empire. Theuma also said that even after this day he kept on recording Fenech and that he had done so because he feared Fenech was planning something against him.
Who is the ‘traitor’?
During the sitting, parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi noted that he heard the word ‘traitor’ being said by Theuma to Fenech, and asked for the recording to be re-heard. Magistrate Rachel Montebello, presiding over the case, asked who Theuma was referring to.
Theuma testified that he was referring to Fenech, as he was afraid that he was planning to kill him. Theuma, however, also mentioned a betrayal by lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, and Vince Muscat. He said he felt Azzopardi was working with Muscat to pin the blame on Theuma. “That’s why I thought a plan was being hatched to get me out of the way,” Theuma agitatedly explained.
Technical issues
The court sitting was interrupted twice to sort out technical issues, and eventually, the Magistrate noted that the recordings were not clear and that the sitting had to be adjourned. The Court decided the recordings would be transcribed and the next sitting will be held on the 5 February at 10 am.
Defence complain about late notification
At the beginning of the sitting, the defence team complained that they only received a notification for court expert Alvin Cardona to be appointed to extract and ensure a true copy is made for the recordings on Tuesday. The Magistrate noted that the prison was informed on 24 January.
The defence claimed that this was a shortcoming by prison authorities and thus could not file a reply. However, since the defence had no objections, the Magistrate said the sitting should continue. Arnaud pointed out that Cardona and he had on Tuesday checked that the recording copies were ok.
Arnaud noted that he had requested all items that were found in the Theuma’s possession were to be extracted but the same recordings were sometimes present on multiple devices. There are some recordings that were “two hours of nothing” or some with just a woman’s voice, which is of no importance, he explained. “We know which are the parts to play out here,” Arnaud pointed out.
At this point, a request for the recordings was made by the defence team and the Court ordered that the expert produces a copy of everything presented for the defence, as well as parte civile. The Court also ordered that the copies given are not published or given to third parties or made available to third parties.
Matthew Brincat, Melvin Theuma’s lawyer, also asked for a copy, with the magistrate noting that he is not a party to the case. Brincat argued that Theuma was the one who provided the recordings, following which the magistrate asked permission from the parties. Considering there was no objection, the court accepts the special request and orders that copies are given to Theuma, with the same limitations appertaining to the parties.
High security was present in the law courts once again on Wednesday’s court sitting, including sniffer dogs.
The Caruana Galizia family, as well as Fenech’s wife, were present for the sitting. Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Marion Camilleri appeared for Fenech.
Lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Therese Comodini Cachia, Peter Caruana Galizia and Eve Borg Costanzi appeared parte civile for the family.