Yorgen Fenech had not featured in the seven initial scenarios postulated by Europol in the early stages of the investigation into the murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the court compiling evidence against Fenech has been told.
Marius Van Der Meij, a former Europol expert who had assisted the investigation into the 2017 murder travelled to Malta from the Netherlands to give evidence before Magistrate Rachel Montebello on Thursday.
But a question about whether or not any of Fenech’s companies did feature in the report was blocked at this stage by the court.
At the beginning of his testimony on Thursday morning, Van Der Meij handed the court a sealed envelope, containing his 106-page report of his examination of data extracted from a forensically cloned copy of Caruana Galizia’s mobile phone and SIM card, as well as a hard drive containing related data that had been extracted from cloud storage. He had compiled the report in late 2017 and submitted it in the acts of the magisterial inquiry in 2018, he said.
He explained that of the tens of thousands of WhatsApp messages and emails present, he had only examined the ones in the English language. He said that he had advised the inquiring magistrate at the time to engage a Maltese speaker to examine the rest, but did not know whether this had eventually been done or not.
The court turned down the defence’s request to see the report, telling lawyer Charles Merceica that it first had to see it itself and ensure that none of the journalist’s sources would be put at risk. Instead, the magistrate ordered that it be kept under seal until that exercise was completed.
Mercieca asked the witness about the scenarios that were initially being considered during the early stages of the investigation. Seven scenarios had been hypothesised, Van Der Meij confirmed, which had identified a number of persons as “possible instigators.”
The defence lawyer suggested that among the scenarios postulated were ones involving politicians, while others had considered family members of the victim as potential suspects. The court disallowed the question and ruled that the witness could not be asked about the names of other persons who had been suspected of involvement in the murder.
The magistrate did, however, permit a question about whether the defendant, Fenech, had featured in those scenarios. “Is Mr Fenech mentioned in this list? Yes or no?" asked the lawyer. "No." came back the reply.
Superintendent Arnaud was denied permission from the court to ask whether companies linked to Fenech had featured in the seven scenarios initially considered. The magistrate disallowed the question, telling the superintendent that her court was not investigating companies.
Another court-appointed expert, lawyer Martin Bajada, also took the stand to hand over hard drives containing copies of data he had been appointed to extract. He informed the court that he was unable to exhibit the contents of one of the exhibits - a mobile phone belonging to former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, because of a gag order that was currently in force. That order was the subject of ongoing proceedings before the Constitutional Court, he explained.
The compilation proceedings against Fenech had to be reopened after an October 2023 ruling by the Court of Criminal Appeal which instructed the magistrate presiding over the compilation of evidence to hear the testimony of a number of specific witnesses.
Caruana Galizia, an outspoken critic of the Labour Party and its associates, was assassinated by means of a bomb planted inside her car in October 2017. The Tumas heir, who is indicted for complicity in Caruana Galizia’s murder, has been described as the mastermind behind the assassination plot.
Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, were sentenced to imprisonment for 40 years after pleading guilty to carrying out the murder of the journalist, on the first day of their trial. A third assassin, Vincent Muscat, is also currently serving a 15-year sentence for his role in the murder, having received a lesser sentence in return for information after reaching a plea bargain agreement with the prosecution.
A fourth man, Melvin Theuma, received a presidential pardon for his part in the plot, in return for turning State’s evidence on this case.
AG lawyers Anthony Vella and Godwin Cini are prosecuting. Lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianluca Caruana Curran and Marion Camilleri are assisting Fenech. Lawyers Therese Comodini Cachia and Jason Azzopardi are assisting the Caruana Galizia family as parte civile.