‘I want you to kill Daphne’

Melvin Theuma yesterday gave his testimony in the compilation of evidence against the three men accused of carrying out the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Here are the key points as he described the timeline of an assasination:

Theuma says he got a call from his ‘friend’ Yorgen Fenech around the time the 2017 election was announced and met him outside the Blue Elephant restaurant in the Hilton, St Julian's.

Fenech asked him if he knew Alfred Degiorgio and said to him to find him “because I want to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia”. Fenech told Theuma that Daphne was going to be publishing information about his uncle, Ray Fenech.

Theuma met Alfred Degiorgio at a potato shed in Marsa and told him that a man wanted the journalist killed.

The two met again at Busy Bee coffee shop in Msida where Degiorgio asked for €150,000. They then went to meet Fenech, where Alfred Degiorgio explained the terms of the assassination.

Theuma received a call from Auberge de Castille for a meeting, and was met by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and another man, who offered him a government job. Theuma never reported to work but was paid a monthly cheque.

After the election was announced, Fenech called him to "stop everything" but on election Sunday, the hit was back on. The next day, Fenech paid him €150,000 “for the assassination”.

Theuma went with Degiorgio to Ms Caruana Galizia’s home overlooking the fields where she would later be assassinated. He says he only knew about the actual murder on October 17 when he read about it in the news.

Theuma describes Fenech as the “only mastermind” and also that he was able to warn in advance about the raids that would see the Degiorgio brothers arrested.

Theuma says a man from the OPM named 'Kenneth' visited him at home and made a phone call. After the call, he told Theuma that the three suspects would be receiving bail.

Theuma said he would relay payments from Fenech to relatives of the three once they were in prison.