Caruana Galizia family lawyer claims Keith Schembri sent terms of Theuma pardon to Yorgen Fenech

One of the lawyers of the Caruana Galizia family, Jason Azzopardi, has claimed in a question in court to former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar that Keith Schembri sent the terms of Melvin Theuma’s pardon to Yorgen Fenech via Whatsapp.

Azzopardi was asking questions to Cutajar, who quit the force last January, during the public inquiry into the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia, when he said that Yorgen Fenech – who stands accused of being complicit in the journalist’s murder – received details about the presidential pardon given to Melvin Theuma, who has confessed to being the middleman in the case, from the former Prime Minister’s then-Chief of Staff Keith Schembri via Whatsapp.

Asked how Schembri had received such information, Cutajar said that the pardon conditions were drafted by the attorney general and that he played no role in them.

“I didn’t even get involved in the report assessing the pardon request. I’m not the president of Malta! I left the matter with the investigators, who know the case better,” he said.

“Saying I got money in exchange for the pardon is another wrong perception that’s out there! Let me get this off my chest, please!” the former Police Commissioner – who underwent a three hour grilling from the public inquiry board on Friday – said, referring to claims that he had been paid a sum of money to grant a pardon to Theuma.

Questioned over Yorgen Fenech’s statements to the police, Cutajar was asked whether Fenech had referred to any specific cases of corruption, to which Cutajar replied in the affirmative.

“Did those include Keith Schembri, Macbridge, Nexia BT and so on?”

“Yes,” he replied.

Azzopardi asked why the economic crimes unit was not brought in to hear what Fenech had to say, before adding that Fenech has not provided any information about these cases to date.

It had been reported that Fenech had told investigators that he wanted to give evidence about other corruption cases, but had neglected from doing so when murder charges were filed against him.

“Investigators took note [of Fenech’s claims]. But they were facing time constraints. We couldn’t hold back the murder investigation. That was the priority at the time,” Cutajar said.

Cutajar also testified that it was not true he had ignored FIAU reports, insisting such files would go directly to former Economic Crimes Unit head Ian Abdilla or former deputy commissioner Silvio Valletta.

Asked about an FIAU report on Konrad Mizzi, which was handed to his predecessor Michael Cassar, Cutajar said the FIAU had spoken to a number of people but added that the report was only a preliminary one, and not completed. Silvio Valletta had spoken to Ian Abdilla about it, but he [Cutajar] was not present for the meeting.

Cutajar said he had always instructed them to seek the Attorney General’s advice, especially since the case could end up in court.

He then read from the advice given by outgoing AG Peter Grech, where the latter had warned the police to exercise caution.

The advice was given on 21 April but reached him on 10 May. Cutajar said he had not spoken directly to the AG but he had spoken to Abdilla and Valletta about the case.

The police were given three FIAU reports, he said. They sought advice from the AG after receiving the preliminary reports but decided to wait for more information from the FIAU.

The first report was about Keith Schembri and Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna, and spoke about payments made into the latter’s company.

Another report was about Schembri and former Allied Newspapers managing director Adrian Hillman and the third was about Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.

Judge Said Pullicino asked Cutajar whether he ought to have investigated, seeing that the reports concerned top political figures.

Cutajar replied by saying: “Do you arrest first and gather evidence later?”

The Judge then said the perception is that the police did nothing, but a flustered Cutajar replied that that perception is “wrong.”

He said the force registered many successes under his command and that he trusted his officers and always left the investigations in their hands. “My prime role was to provide support,” he said.

Cutajar said he was not passionate about politics. He never went to mass meetings or followed political programmes.

Asked about a 2014 Facebook post in which he had described Joseph Muscat as a Prime Minister “with balls”, Cutajar said he had posted it “in the spur of the moment.”

He said he had sat for a competitive exam to become an inspector. When he became assistant commissioner, he had placed fourth out of six applicants. The interview process was organised by the Home Affairs Ministry.

PM Joseph Muscat had sent for him to be interviewed when it came to being appointed police chief. “I never had any pretentions of office, but I wanted to improve the corps,” he said.

At the start of the sitting, Cutajar said he has not yet testified in the inquiry looking into allegations related to his meetings with Edwin Brincat il-Ġojja.

Cutajar has admitted to meeting Cutajar, who is a close friend of Daphne murder middleman Melvin Theuma, but insists he did so to try and extract information about Theuma’s recordings.