‘I don’t understand much, but I share items for the sake of partisanism’ – Kenneth Camilleri
• Witness says he had no contact with Keith Schembri since latter’s resignation
Former OPM security official Kenneth Camilleri said yesterday that he does not understand much about the Panama Papers and other issues, but shares information for the sake of partisanism.
Testifying in the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry yesterday, Camilleri said that he does not regret sharing the information, but “I don’t really understand these things”, including the Panama Papers.
Kenneth Camilleri works with Transport Malta, but is currently suspended after his name was mentioned by middleman Melvin
Theuma in the course of police investigations into the journalist’s murder. Theuma was granted immunity to provide details on the plot to assassinate Caruana Galizia.
Former judge Michael Mallia is chairing the inquiry board, while Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino and Judge Abigail Lofaro are the board’s other two members. The aim is to determine whether any wrongful action or omission by or within any State entity could have facilitated the assassination of Caruana Galizia or failed to prevent it, particularly whether the State knew or should have known of risks to the journalist’s life “at the time” of her murder.
At the start of yesterday’s sitting, Corinne Vella, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister, presented a document of information taken from open sources on the day’s witnesses.
The first dossier concerns Ray Barbara - where she noted that she found that Barbara shadowed former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat very closely even before 2013. “He appears to be very trusted and very devoted, and is also serving as the PA to the current Prime Minister,” she said.
She explained Barbara’s use of social media, noting that he frequently re-tweeted and shared posts made by members of the
government or people in positions of trust. She remarked that Barbara had targeted activists, and had supported the libel cases against Caruana Galizia even after her death.
Vella also noted that Barbara used an email address registered to the josephmuscat.com domain for government business.
Another dossier focused on Kenneth Camilleri’s social media activity. She remarked that the day after Caruana Galizia was killed, he shared an Italian article which indicated that her last investigation was on the Opposition leader. This was part of a government campaign to pin the murder on the Opposition, she said.
Vella said she had found posts which targeted Caruana Galizia, and mocked her for her work on topics such as Pilatus Bank, and also thanked her for the 2017 electoral victory. She explained that there was also a post which said that Caruana Galizia was blackmailing Adrian Delia with compromising images of him.
Next up on the stand was Ray Barbara, assisted by lawyer Jonathan Attard.
He explained that he is a person of trust of the Prime Minister, and had previously worked as a computer technician at GO. He said that he had worked with Joseph Muscat when he was the Opposition Leader as of around 2011, and had then taken the role of his personal assistant when Muscat won the 2013 election.
He stated that his job is to take care of the Prime Minister’s diary - programming the date and time of appointments, trips abroad and other engagements.
Barbara said he did not attend meetings with the Prime Minister and does not know who would take minutes of such meetings but assumed it would be a member of his secretariat, which fell under the responsibility of Keith Schembri.
Asked about the former Prime Minister’s previous meetings, Barbara said that he has no recollection of Muscat ever meeting with Yorgen Fenech in his presence. There were occasions where he met with Joe Gasan however, he recalled, but again noted that he doesn’t recall arranging any meetings with representatives from Tumas Group. He stated that he had never seen Fenech at Castille.
Judge Mallia asked whether Muscat had ever discussed Daphne Caruana Galizia with him, but Barbara stated that he is certain that in his presence Muscat had never discussed matters related to her.
He was then asked about Castille’s security arrangements. He said Castille’s security is handled by the Armed Forces of Malta. Visitors are given a card to enter, he said, adding that he was not sure what arrangements there were in terms of the registration of visitors. The Prime Minister then has his own security, he said, noting that they would be members of the Police or the Security Service - they would be assigned to the Prime Minister and would follow him.
This is a group of six people - they work in groups of three on a day on, day off basis. Barbara said that he is the person who would tell them about the Prime Minister’s appointments for the day and they would operate according to that schedule.
He named the six, but the media was instructed not to publish the names.
Barbara identified Ronnie Vella from a picture presented to him by the board. He noted that Vella used to work in the Prime Minister’s communications office, but left his post when Joseph Muscat departed his post in Castille.
Madam Justice Lofaro asked whether he is aware of any political spin emerging from Castille that the persons behind the assassination had something to do with the oil smuggling scandal, but Barbara said he is not aware of anything of this sort.
Judge Said Pullicino asked Barbara what Joseph Muscat’s reaction was when the Panama Papers emerged, when the Egrant allegation emerged, and when Caruana Galizia was assassinated.
“It wasn’t a normal reaction - he was shocked and angry,” Barbara replied. The accusations implicating Michelle Muscat had also angered the then Prime Minister a lot, Barbara said. When Caruana Galizia was assassinated, Muscat was shocked, he said, adding that he cannot speak of what Keith Schembri’s reaction was as he did not work closely with him. He clarified that he was answerable directly to the Prime Minister, not to Schembri.
Jason Azzopardi asked about meetings related to the new power station. Barbara said that Socar and Electrogas did not feature in Muscat’s diary, although he noted that he dealt with persons not entities. He does not think that the names Paul Apap Bologna or Mark Gasan had featured in the diary either.
Questions then centred on the late night press conference at Castille last November. “I didn’t see anything,” the witness said, noting that he was closed inside his office at the time.
Asked by Azzopardi whether the name Turab Muzayev had ever cropped up in the Prime Minister’s diary, Barbara shook his head and said he does not think so.
Next on the stand, Kenneth Camilleri said he works with Transport Malta but is currently suspended.
He explained that he was a Police Constable in the past, and was then part of the Prime Minister’s detail as of 2013. He left Castille in January 2019, having served in the force for 25 years.
Camilleri said he had not been given an explanation as to why he was suspended from Transport Malta, but noted that this had come after Melvin Theuma mentioned him in his testimony.
Judge Mallia asked who the security detailed answered to, to which Camilleri replied: “Ray Barbara”.
He explained that Barbara would coordinate their movements in tandem with those of the Prime Minister, and that he would communicate with Barbara.
Questions then turned to Camilleri’s trips to Libya. Camilleri recalled that he went four times to Libya, with the last one being the only one in an official capacity when he accompanied Malta’s Ambassador to Libya, Charles Saliba, under orders from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
He was asked about Gafa’s private meetings in Libya, but Camilleri was coy, saying he didn’t really ask about the nature of the meetings or who he was meeting with, something which Judge Said Pullicino found somewhat hard to believe.
Camilleri recalled a meeting Gafa had close to a particular square, noting that he did not recall the name of the man he met but remembers that he was wearing a Juventus football kit. Azzopardi asked whether the man’s name was Tajouri, with Camilleri replying in the affirmative.
Camilleri said he had never discussed the Panama Papers, “I don’t really understand these things.”
He said they had mentioned Daphne Caruana Galizia when she had written a story about the Prime Minister’s security detail, but no more than that.
He was then confronted with the social media content that Corinne Vella presented at the beginning of the sitting. “I may have shared them, but I never wrote them myself,” he stated.
Madam Justice Lofaro asked whether there were any posts where he had said that Keith Schembri was innocent in connection with the Panama Papers. “I never spoke to Schembri about it... the posts may be something I saw and shared,” Camilleri said.
The board was not convinced: “So you share everything you see?” Madam Justice Lofaro asked. “You share something if you agree with it,” Judge Mallia quipped.
“Yes,” Camilleri replied, agreeing with Mallia.
“So how can you say that you don’t understand anything about the Panama Papers, but then share things related to it?” Madam Justice Lofaro asked.
Camilleri hesitated and meekly replied that he doesn’t understand this stuff but may have shared things related to it.
“So you are saying that you don’t understand these things, you never discussed them with anyone, but when someone posted information related to these things you saw them and felt that you should share them?” Judge Mallia observed.
Madam Justice Lofaro asked whether he regrets sharing the content, to which Camilleri replied that he does not.
Asked again why he felt the need to share such posts, and Camilleri finally gave an answer: “Partisanism...that’s what it was”
Camilleri said he had never seen Yorgen Fenech in Castille. He was reminded that he is under oath and that there could be consequences if evidence emerges to the contrary. He again stated that he is certain that he had never seen Fenech at Castille.
The board briefly considered asking Camilleri about his relationship with Melvin Theuma, but Camilleri pointed out that he will testify on March 27 about the same subject. Given this, the board chose not to proceed on this line of questioning.
The board asked whether Camilleri had been in contact with Keith Schembri since he left Castille, to which he replied that he had not. Camilleri said lead investigator Keith Arnaud had asked him the same thing and he had given the same answer.
Camilleri said he had last spoken to Neville Gafa the day after he (Gafa) testified. Asked who paid for his trips to Libya with Gafa, Camilleri replied that he had definitely not paid for them himself. He said he used to give his passport to Gafa and he would make all the necessary arrangements.
Azzopardi briefly asked about Camilleri’s relationship with Melvin Theuma. Camilleri said he had met Melvin Theuma a total of four times. The board pointed out that these questions will be asked on March 27, in the trial against Yorgen Fenech, and Azzopardi stopped there.
Kurt Farrugia, Joseph Muscat’s long time Head of Communications and now Malta Enterprise, was meant to testify next Monday. Farrugia told the board that he will be overseas at the time and hence cannot testify. He neglected to tell the board, however, when he would return to Malta. This is something which the board said it will look into so that Farrugia can testify.
As a result, Monday’s scheduled sitting was cancelled and the next sitting will take place on Wednesday 4 March at 2pm.
The people testifying are as of yet unknown and will be communicated later.