Vincent Muscat, one of the three men accused of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has written to the President of the Republic asking for a pardon in return for “all the information he knows on various facts,” and hinting that former OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri had been decisive in the failure of an earlier pardon attempt.
Muscat, who is currently being detained at the Corradino Correctional Facility, wrote to President George Vella today through his lawyer Marc Sant, with a formal request that he exercise what is known in legal circles as “the prerogative of mercy,” subject to Muscat providing all the information he knows on various facts.
The letter continues: “Vincent Muscat would also like to express his following preoccupations.
“Back in April 2018 Vincent Muscat had met with and spoken to the officer in charge of the investigation of this case, Inspector Keith Arnaud. This can be confirmed by the Inspector himself.
“Following this encounter a number of other meetings were held with Inspector Arnaud where Vincent Muscat had provided information that is turning out to be crucial for substantial progress being made towards solving this case.
“For example, thanks to the information provided by Vincent Muscat the investigations narrowed in on, followed and subsequently arrested a certain Melvin Theuma. This arrest took place during November of this year.
“In the past days, Your Excellency has accepted the recommendation of the Honourable Prime Minister to grant a pardon to Melvin Theuma.
“The irony in this is that this same person that Vincent Muscat mentioned to the investigators is now being brought by the prosecution to give evidence against Vincent Muscat himself.”
Vincent Muscat maintains that the information he provided to Inspector Arnaud was what, in fact, led to the arrest of Melvin Theuma. So much so, that Melvin Theuma was not one of the witnesses brought by the prosecution during the lengthy compilation of evidence before the Court of Magistrates.
The prosecution had only requested that Melvin Theuma testifies before the Court of Magistrates on 26 November 2019 – that is almost four months after the Attorney General had issued the Bill of Indictment against Vincent Muscat and the other co-accused and when the preliminary pleas before the Criminal Court had been submitted and the oral submissions were nearing their end.
Vincent Muscat, through his previous lawyer, had already started co-operating with Inspector Arnaud and working towards obtaining the prerogative of mercy in return, reads the letter.