Magistrate’s first witnesses raise eyebrows

Before Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera stepped down from the inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the witnesses she had summoned to court just hours into the inquiry raised eyebrows.

Among those seen at the law courts waiting to be questioned were Opposition leader Adrian Delia, Minister Chris Cardona, OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, and Andre Falzon (the partner of Rebecca Dimech).

It is understood that the mag- istrate had been keen to question everyone who Caruana Galizia had written about in the last months.

The questioning never happened, however, and those called in were dismissed, as the Caruana Galizia family had in the meantime filed a court application for the magistrate to step down from the inquiry given the chequered history between Caruana Galizia and Scerri Herrera.

By the next morning the mag- istrate had stepped down and another magistrate was appointed to the inquiry.

Asked about Schembri’s presence at the courts on Monday night, a government spokesperson said, “Along with others, Keith Schembri was asked to go to court by magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera. He was later asked to leave the court without an explanation of why he was requested to be present at the courts. The magistrate can tell you the reason he was asked to be in Court with a number of other persons.”

A spokesperson for Cardona explained, “Minister Cardona was called in by the then inquiring magistrate, together with a series of other individuals, including the Leader of the Opposition. However, he was dismissed before speaking to the inquiring magistrate, as by that time an application had been filed in relation to the afore mentioned magistrate.”