Judge throws out request for police to probe melvin theuma for perjury
It would not be wise for the police to investigate self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma for perjury once the evidence in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case is not yet conclusive, even if certain inconsistencies are “rather suspicious”, a judge declared.
In a judgment handed down by the Criminal Court yesterday, Madam Justice Audrey Demicoli turned down the appeal filed by Yorgen Fenech in proceedings wherein he was challenging the police commissioner to investigate Theuma for perjury and taking a false oath in the murder case.
Last year, the Magistrates’ Court had rejected the businessman’s bid to force the police into investigating Theuma over the allegedly false statements he gave throughout the proceedings where Fenech stands accused of being an accomplice.
That court had concluded that, at this stage, there was no prima facie basis for the police commissioner to order such an investigation.
Theuma, who has been granted a presidential pardon in exchange for his testimony about the journalist’s 2017 murder, is the prosecution’s star witness in the case against Fenech.
The former taxi driver has given evidence in court against Fenech as well as others allegedly involved in the assassination plot.
However, Fenech’s lawyers say Theuma’s testimony is full of “half-truths” and “blatant lies”.
They claimed that Theuma had given false testimony both before the magistrate conducting the in genere inquiry as well as during the compilation of evidence.
They called upon the court to direct the police commissioner to investigate and prosecute Theuma for taking a false oath and perjury.
Theuma’s lawyers had immediately reacted by filing parallel challenge proceedings calling upon the police authorities to prosecute Fenech for such calumnious accusations in his regard.
In their appeal, Fenech’s lawyers argued that the first court had ignored their
allegations regarding Theuma’s false oath, basing its decision only on the other allegations concerning perjury.
The police failed to investigate Theuma because they relied on the attorney general’s advice to wait for the murder proceedings to be wrapped up since Theuma could always retract his statement when testifying, even under crossexamination.
However, Fenech’s lawyers argued that such retraction was not possible since the offence of taking a false oath was committed the very minute Theuma said something false before the inquiring magistrate.
So the police had the duty to investigate.
What Theuma said in the magisterial inquiry contradicted his subsequent testimony in court.
And what he said on oath “manifestly contrasted” with his statements in his own secretly recorded conversations, argued Fenech’s lawyers, highlighting Theuma’s inconsistencies and stressing that the prosecution’s star witness was not telling the whole truth about his knowledge on the murder.
The police commissioner rebutted that Theuma could still retract whatever he said in the murder compilation and/or correct himself if he previously told a lie.
When delivering judgment, Madam Justice Demicoli said that the court understood the police commissioner’s “hesitation” in prosecuting Theuma at a stage when the murder case was still ongoing.
Judging by the extracts of testimonies cited by Fenech’s lawyers in their challenge application and other evidence put forward, “it was rather suspicious” that Theuma’s sworn testimony at the magisterial inquiry contrasted with evidence produced at the compilation of evidence.
‘What theuma said in inquiry ContradiCted his Court testimony’
Evidence produced ‘in isolation’ and outside context
And “it is true that there is a possibility that Melvin Theuma took a false oath before the inquiring magistrate”, went on the judge.
However, it would not be wise for the police to prosecute Theuma based on evidence that is not yet conclusive and evidence produced “in isolation” and outside the context of all the other evidence in the murder case.
Therefore, the police commissioner was justified in not pressing criminal charges against Theuma at this stage, concluded the judge, turning down Fenech’s appeal.
Lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran, Charles Mercieca and Marion Camilleri are assisting Fenech.